Taking care of Nancy and Trixie has been interesting. I am not the momma, so I'm not one they really turn to for comfort, but I do have hands that are nice for scratching chins and ears, so they have use of me.
The grumpy growling has abated quite a bit. I was asked to trim nails but the girls are not used to having their feet touched so I spent most of the weekend getting them used to being held by me and my touching their feet. Nancy came around rather quickly and I had her nails trimmed by Saturday. Trixie is much less trusting and she growls at me when I push too hard which sends Nancy into a set of growls. Trixie has a few mats on her pants and I've been trying to take care of those too. Fortunately, she is quick to forgive me but not so quick to forget. I shall go slow, and hopefully, I'll be able to get the rest of it taken care of soon.
On the home front, Fleurp is doing better weight wise. I'll probably start tapering her off the pred in the next few days. Muffin seems to be visiting the water bowl a little more often than necessary for a healthy cat, so I'll be keeping an eye on that. Skippy is currently curled up in my lap resting his head on my arm, it's kinda cute.
I reached out to Nancy and Trixie's mom to see if I could stop by and take some photos of her girls (formerly known as Wryn and Sprite)
They are just over a year old and are coming up on their "Gotcha Day" and I was hoping to invite myself over to get some photos. When I asked about stopping by I was met with a question "Do you know a good cat sitter?"
Do I know a good cat sitter? 😃
I offered to take care of the girls, but the more I thought about it the more I realized they might have more attention if they boarded at Casa de Gato. Since I have a spare room at the moment, it worked out nicely.
They are here until next Sunday morning.
Initially, everything went far better than I was expecting. They were both out and about and investigating and being social. Nancy became a little overwhelmed with the new scents and everything going on so she started growling at things. It was interesting because she was still rubbing on me while growling - it reminded me of Lemon - their mom who used to growl at the weirdest things.
It is easy to engage Nancy in play, which is a very good sign, but she seems disturbed by her sister, and I wonder if that might not be a scent thing, but her sister is giving her a wide berth. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being everything is awesome and I'm giving belly rubs and 1 is I'm worried about bloodshed, I think we are at a 7. I gave her a little Rescue Remedy and I'm fairly certain things will be calmer in the morning. If I am wrong and this goes downhill, I can always bring them back to their home and stop by twice a day to check on them.
I took a couple of vacation days last week and then with only a half day of work on Friday, the weekend and then the snow day on Monday, I feel like it has been forever since I've been at work. I will say the rest was completely needed as I was feeling kind of burnt out and run down. Life is kinda harsh without kittens you know 😉
Snow. Yes, we received a bit of snow..
These images were taken at about nine am, and it didn't stop snowing until nearly 6 pm, so we received a couple more inches. Yes, the snow got inside the storm door. The back deck was clear of snow last Wednesday, we received about a foot of snow last Thursday, and then this. The last photo is of the mailbox (and the neighbor's on the far right) Husband spent nearly three hours snow blowing the driveway once it was all over.. and we are slated to get two more feet on Thursday.. fun fun.. not.
Fleurp started showing signs of anemia. Her gums are still pink so I know her RBC hasn't dropped too far, but she started licking the mirror and her weight had dropped several ounces.
Fleurp's weight is normally around 11 lbs 10 oz. Any more than that and she really starts looking like a basketball with feet. Anything above 11 lbs 8 oz I consider good and 'safe'. Anything under 11 lbs 3 oz I consider a serious need to take her to the vet. She was eleven five. I weighed her the next morning just to be sure and she was eleven four and a half, so I started her on prednisolone. She hovered between four and a half to three and a half and I was starting to panic because I wasn't sure what else they could do for her. I started giving her liqui-tinic to boost her iron intake. But it was only when I started supplementing her with canned food that her weight started coming back up. I am fairly convinced that when her body is attacking its red blood cells she stops wanting to eat raw food. I have no idea why, but I think her early weight loss is the result of not eating. She happily eats canned food and put the weight back on. I will continue to give her whatever she wants until she is stable again. Last year it was once her coat was shed.
To help that along, I decided to help by shaving off some of the longer furs on her belly and some of her mane. She was not too amused by my attempts despite my attempts to make this as stress-free as possible. I fear that she had some traumatic events in the past with a vet I'm no longer going to which makes her fear the clippers because she associates it with blood draws. Anyway, I did my best, I went a little longer than I should have (and ended up with a warning bite on my arm for my troubles) but I was able to take off a good chunk..
She is not amused.. I'll probably try furminating her again later this week - Thursday if we have another snow day for sure.
