Casa de Gato updates - Twee

Tweedle was born in July of 04 which makes her *calculates* ugh, way too old..  14.5ish. She still has the mindset of a kitten. She has always been "touched" in the head but she is incredibly sweet and an amazing hunter. She loves playing with fishing pole toys and always grabs the toy and holds on to it for dear life.

For those of you new to the blog, Twee recently ended up in emergency care for hepatic lipidosis. She stopped eating after Jack died. We noticed it initially but she hadn't lost any weight and I was feeling a bit paranoid so I didn't check in with her again until it was almost too late. I tried force feeding her, and while that went well enough, her personality disappeared and she seemed to be getting worse so we made the appointment to euthanize her. At the appointment, my husband couldn't go through it without throwing a hail mary, so we brought her to an emergency clinic out of state for a few days of care and several thousand dollars later she's doing much better.  She was slow to eat when she came home. She has never ever been food motivated so I was fearful that I wouldn't get her to eat well without more medical help. As a last ditch attempt, I offered her some dry food and she ate it! I'm telling you, that stuff is addicting..

After recovering her weight and getting a clean bill of health, she's been a bit of a pain in the tushie. She can't seem to stop harassing Eli which bothers me but I can't seem to break her of it. It is not every day, but it is enough that I feel bad for Eli. I don't know why he doesn't stand up to her.

Twee is still very much my husband's kitty, always hanging out with him or is cuddled up to him. I'll do if he isn't around, but she misses him when he goes away and greets him happily when he comes home.

Worldless Wednesday - Twee and her beauty spot #cat

A day off with the kitties

I decided to take a day off to bake some cookies, mail some packages, and do some wrapping of presents. Sadly, the day wasn't nearly as productive as I would have liked (I still have way too much wrapping to do) but I was able to add to my cookie collection.

I first made thumbprint cookies. I like little bitty cookies so I can have just one if I want a little something, but I can have four and still not have the same calorie equivalent if I had one regular sized cookie.  So instead of thumbprint cookies, I basically made fingerprint cookies 😊

Technically, I made those a few days ago and there is fewer than a half dozen left. Today I made some no-bake cookies. I wanted to try making plain peanut butter ones, which I've tried before and really loved but never made. As I was scooping them out I thought chocolate chip no bake cookies would be awesome, but the chips I put in had a low melting point so I have chocolate swirl cookies.

My husband adores congo bars, so I made some of those. He got to them before I could take a photo.

I try to make a new recipe each year and this year I made "whipped shortbread cookies". I haven't had one yet because I was full of no-bake cookies, but my husband said they were good. They are more of a melt-away and not a real shortbread.

And now that I have cookies, I decided to email the shelter and see if there are kittens. I have no idea if she was waiting for me to ask or if there weren't kittens. I'm going to have to make sure she knows that if I don't have any kittens then I am in a perpetual state of wanting kittens. I know we are in the beginning of winter and chances are I'm going to have long periods of time without anything to blog about, so you are going to get to see me cook and craft.. aren't you lucky! 😖

You are using Packing Paper for WHAT??

Fleurp sure does love her packing paper. Whenever we receive something that is packed with paper it is required that the paper ends up on the floor so Fleurp can play with it. She will hang out with it and hide under it and pounce on it until someone vomits on it and I have to take it out. It is a sad day when I do.

This time I decided to do something a bit different with it. See when I was finding the packing paper in my latest package from Chewy my husband was doing this

And yes, I'm sure he is thrilled that I'm sharing these :) but when you are married to a cat blogging woman, you put up with a lot..  Like my favorite Christmas tree ornaments.

Yes, it is untraditional, but it makes me smile and it is a whole heck of a lot easier than unpacking our ornaments hanging them up and then packing them back up in a few short weeks. This way we don't have to worry about the cats and the tree.

So, about that packing paper?

I know it is kinda silly but I really like the 'garland' and the dinosaur

If you'd like to see the tree in previous years, you can check them out here

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The State of Casa de Gato

Now that things have settled down a bit, it is time to focus on the needs of The Crew.

Jack has one eye that has been watering on and off for a few weeks now. I really need to get him ito the vet for a general once over and a specific look at that eye. I have a feeling we might be dealing with bartonella and I intend to have him tested for that.  Other than the eye, he does need more grooming now than he has in the past - prior to his I131 and becoming hypothyroid - but I am happy to do that.

Muffin is also pretty stable. She is still limping slightly, but she has learned how to get down the stairs so I'm thinking she is doing well. I put her on Adaquan and give her cosequin a few times a week.  She is also due for a general check up just to be sure.

Eli is a bit more concerning. I am a bit worried about his bladder so I have been giving him the UT supplement when I am able to. Whenever he starts screaming when we aren't in the room I make it a point to give him one. His mouth could also use a seriously good cleaning.

We are coming upon static season so he is often around hoping we will pat him until he starts sparking.. he must be the only cat in the world who loves static.

I love how Twee's forehead whiskers look like antennae. Twee also has had weeping eyes. I have tried antibiotic ointment and natural remedies so I need to her have her tested for bartonella as well. Twee has been spending a lot of time with the CatMan, which has been very nice for both of them.

Fleurp was attempting to give me the cold shoulder because I would not give her treats. It didn't last for long thank goodness because she is so darn cute.

Things are going well with Fleurp too *knockwood* She has been holding a steady weight and is even coming into the bedroom more frequently now that Kit has passed. I am unsure as to why that is, but I'm happy to see it. It wasn't like she didn't like Kit, she spent a lot of time with her in her last few days, I guess there are some things I am just not meant to know.. that and why she seems to be chasing ghosts (or maybe it is a fly??) and is running around the house like her tail is on fire.. (it's not, I checked)

Skippy was none too pleased I woke him up from a nap to take his photo..  Skippy is also doing well. His weight is a constant; my weight notebook has his weight always the same. I need to find him a nice Christmas bow tie... but I have been considering trying my hand at making one as I have all of the necessary supplies to do it. We'll see.

Me? I'm okayish. The keen ache has dulled and I'm sure as time goes on it will be easier and easier to remember. For now, I'm doing my best to avoid remembering. In other news, my stomach has decided to go on vacation.. which is interesting. Every once in a while (I think the last time was two years ago) for a few days to a week it absolutely revolts at even the idea of food and makes my life very interesting. I wouldn't mind so much if it would tell my brain to stop getting hungry. I can usually eat jello and toast as long as I go slow, so I get through it easily enough.  What really bothers me most is that I have some really awesome Thanksgiving leftovers in my fridge I can't eat.

As you can see I did a slight redesign on the blog. Comments? Suggestion? I think the font could be a bit bigger. I'm thinking of moving the labels to a page instead of on the sidebar. Does anyone use them? Do you like seeing them there or do they take up too much room?

The Fishies were all adopted on Friday.. the first day the shelter was open in their new facility.  I went and saw it yesterday, it made my eyes leak at how amazing it is, and how nearly unbelievably cat-friendly it is. I took some photos, I will share that with you this week. There might be new kittens at the end of the week, only time will tell.

Another week without kittens

I will admit I'm a little lost without kittens. I'm not quite sure what to do with myself. Kitten fever is also burning pretty hard.  The Crew can be annoyed with me for grabbing them and kissing them silly and taking their photos all the time. As you can see, they have been rallying around my husband.

I'm not the only one who is lost and confused..

Where am I supposed to bring my toy now?

Friday's kitty is loving and giving

How could today's post not be about Twee

This last photo is a pretty good capture of her primordial pouch. I really wish I could get a video of her running down the hall. It is so big that it swings from side to side nearly hitting her hip.. okay that is a bit of an exaggeration, but it is impressive.

Happy Middle Child Day Twee!

Since we have seven cats, Twee is officially our "Middle Child" now, although I am sure if you ask her, she is still the baby.

Twee is, and always has been, rather slow in the mental department.  Before she was named we often said she was a few kibble shy of a bowl.  Lots of names were thrown around, and many of them weren't so nice. We ended up settling on Tweedle of the Alice in Wonderland twins. I have had a couple of animal communicators 'talk' to Twee, and each one says she talks like a kitten despite the fact at the time of the session she was well past kittenhood.

She is as sweet as honey, and sometimes can be as annoying as honey too. She has no concept of personal space. She doesn't understand why the other cats don't really want to hang out with her, so when they get up and leave she follows them thinking maybe they know a better spot to snuggle. When Em was still with us, she would always snuggle up with Twee but in the years since Em's passing, poor Twee still hasn't caught on that not everyone loves her. Sometimes she makes such a pest of herself I have to put a stop to it, which bothers me a bit because I know she has no idea why I am doing it.

Funny thing about Twee, is she turns into a terror at the vet. She used to be just fine and almost seem to enjoy the adventure of it all, but when she was three or four she started hissing and spitting (or  as I like to call it, swearing like a sailor) I can't help but wonder if something happened to her to cause the shift, and that thought saddens me to no end.

She also hates to have her photo taken. I have to basically trick her into it. How she sat still for these, I have no idea.

#TBT Tweedle

Twee; sitting in front of the foster room door...

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Last week.

The State of "Casa de Gato"

I've been feeling like I should be doing a 'state of the union' type post, to report on how all of my own cats are doing.  I originally started this blog to not only share how my foster kittens were doing but to also have a log as such on The Crew and if I want to be able to look it up I've got to put it down.

Jack:

Jack is doing well.  Sadly he is still hypothyroid and I'm having a hard time getting the extra weight off him. I'm thinking I have to increase his medication but I fear that because if his thyroid gets too high he starts peeing.  He seems to have adjusted to being fourteen pounds, but I'm not a fan. Sadly he has very few teeth in his mouth these days and the ones he does have are covered in tartar again and it is time for another dental. He is also excessively needy.  I spent two nights away from the house recently and came home to find his fur all matted up. I love that boy of mine.

Muffin:

Muffin appears healthy enough, but she has been whiny for several months now. She keeps demanding that I give her canned food like she is starved. I weigh her often, she isn't suffering weight loss. I took her in to see the vet and made them run a full check up with her with blood work, and nothing popped.  She still randomly has a slight tremor in her front legs, but it is very slight and you wouldn't even notice it unless you were looking for it specifically.  She is often attached to me if she isn't complaining at me and she is always there when I wake up in the morning - well unless breakfast is being served. Skippy and Twee have a tendency to get on her nerves, wanting to play, and we occasionally have a little scuffle where she tends to be a diva and not want to put up with their shenanigans. Yesterday someone rang the doorbell and I found one of her hiding places, as she really does not like having people in the house.

Eli:

Eli recently had a dental and is doing well.  His eyes have been watering a bit more lately than they had been, but no more so than they ever have - if that makes sense.  He's also having a bit of a hard time accepting that static season is just about over and he keeps asking us to give him static and gets disappointed when it doesn't happen. I recently ran a senior panel on him and he is doing well.

Twee:

Twee also recently had a dental. It always frightens me when she goes under sedation due to her history, but it has happened successfully now four times, so I should probably relax a bit about it. She also has issues with watery eyes. This has happened in the past but it cleared up when we cleaned her teeth, this time, not so much. She had senior work done when they did her dental and she is doing well there.

Kit:

Kit has been a hot mess for months now.  It has been fairly interesting and we still really don't know what is going on with her.  Kit tends to get abscesses from scuffles with the other cats. I rarely see them fighting, but every once in a while I see tension between her and Jack. When she gets one, it can be hard to figure out because she is so tiny and has so much fur, but she becomes depressed and almost mopey.

She became depressed and mopey at the start of this and we did some blood work. The vet reported she had a high globulin level and went immediately went to the worst case scenarios of FIP or bone cancer. He was quite sure it was FIP and mentioned several times that I should bring her in for a titer test.  Well having gone through FIP in the past, I knew that the "titer test for FIP" is absolute rubbish. I told him as much and said I wouldn't do it. He brought it up a couple more times which is when I had to stop him and explain to him exactly why I know that test is a waste of money - because it only tests for the coronavirus which I know for an absolute fact my cats have all been exposed to. Corona is not dangerous, and from what I can find doesn't really have a treatment, it is just something that is very common in cats. Sometimes it will mutate into FIP in young cats but with Kit being older and her demeanor, in general. I was absolutely certain we weren't looking at FIP and said what else were we looking at.  I was making plans to bring her in for X-rays when I confided in a friend as to what was going on, and she volunteered to talk to her own vet about what I was facing. Consensus was it was infection, which is when I went back to thinking it was an abscess. I put her on antibiotics and that night the abscess ruptured and we found a small amount of blood and fur on the bed she had been sleeping on.  It felt like we were on the right track so we continued with the antibiotic and she improved dramatically.  I wanted to wait until the course of antibiotics was up to retest her and see if her blood work improved.

I should remind you that Kit does not travel well and getting to the vet is very traumatic to her. My husband and I decided if she needs extensive medical care that would require numerous trips to the vet we might choose not to treat.

By the time I felt comfortable enough with her improvement to take her back, she backslid. I took her back to the vet for a check up, and more treatment. She improved again. We did blood work and her globulin levels improved but were not perfect. We saw a different vet and she believed it pointed to an infection. More antibiotics. More blood work. She was on a bit of a roller coaster, going from feeling okay and being herself to being mopey and having issues.  Then almost overnight her ears nearly blocked with infection drainage. Back to the vet more antibiotics and ear meds.

This was hard on her. She is not a fan of my medicating her which is also hard on me, and it is hard on my husband. Fortunately, this medication and ear meds seemed to fix it. Things were going along nicely and we thought we were out of the woods.  We went and did a final round of blood work which showed everything in the normal range. Now she came down with a cold. She is blowing snot bubbles and one ear became infected again.  While I do have other cats with watery eyes, no one else is getting sick so I wondered for a while if this might not be something else and we should get some x-rays done, but the antibiotics seem to be working. We are going to give it a few more days and see what happens.  We are doing a lot of supportive care and being more aware of her and what is going on with her and her environment and her interactions with the other cats. I am hopeful this is the end of it, but if not we will dig deeper and see what else could be going on, hopefully without too many trips to the vet.

Fleurp:

Fleurp is still our mystery kitty. At the moment, she is doing very well. She becomes anemic each spring, and truth be told this year it started early. Her weight started to drop and she became pale, so with the vet's advice, we put her on prednisolone.  Her weight increased and she pinked up, so after a week of good weight, I started dropping the amount I gave her until I was down to 1/2 a tab every three days.  It felt like I was giving her unnecessary medicine so I stopped altogether and she is currently holding her weight.  I weigh her every couple of days, and probably will right up until June. I am hopeful, but I will tell you I wish we didn't have to deal with this. It is scary and frustrating.

Skippy:

My husband was attempting to pack for a trip. 

Skippy seems to think it is not necessary.

Skippy is also doing well.  I recently decided to do a rabies titer test on him as I was curious and questioning my decision to stop vaccinating my cats. I've read enough studies to say that my cats are still well protected despite not having been injected in four to five years, but there are so many who insist that if you don't vaccinate on a regular basis you are putting your cats in danger. I figured Skippy would be my best test of the science for me since he only has had his kitten vaccine. His titers are still well within the protection levels that I have become more comfortable with my decision. Sadly it was a fairly expensive way to appease my curiosity. It was about $200, and considering the fact that giving the vaccine only costs about $20, I can see why people choose to simply give the vaccine.

I would also like to add that I am heartbroken over the death of Prince. I have been a fan of other artists and performers and celebrities, but he held a special place in my life. At the time I write this, I want to say I am so incredibly impressed with how little speculation is going on (aside from TMZ) and how everyone is waiting for the actual facts of the case to delve into how he died. There is some talk about his recent health issues, but they are simply bringing it up because it happened, but they don't seem to be jumping to any conclusions.  I have been watching (probably way too many) tributes and one of my favorites is his interview on the Today show when he seemed half asleep talking to Matt until the music comes on, and you watch him blossom and comes to life.

So far, my favorite tribute is from Mayor Betsy Hodges:

Prince was unapologetically different and he made it okay for his fans to be different and to celebrate their individuality. His social conscience challenged us to look deeper than the skin color of our neighbors. “Baltimore” challenges us today as much as “Sign o’ the Times” did in 1987. His voice was vital and will be missed.

I wore a purple shirt on Friday and I dropped my phone on my chest and it took that photo.. I just really liked how it came out.