I would like to express my deepest gratitude for those generous donors who played Santa Bast. Thank you so much.

For my final post of 2005, I'd like to admit I'm a dork. I ommitted one of the main pieces of news yesterday, and that is a public thank you to Bonnie Jo Davis who bought and sent me a brand spanking-new weight scale, along with a bunch of cat toys (featured in the photos I posted yesterday, duhhh).

I put it together and immediately weighed the two cats with the weight loss problems, Owl and Tribble. The good news is that they're holding steady. They haven't gained weight (which would be great), but they haven't lost it. The vet said to me that at this stage, his hope is that they at least hold steady and don't continue to lose. Tribble seems to be constantly hungry, poor boy. He eats and eats, but I suspect it isn't getting properly into his system.

Another shout-out goes to the Irish Moggyblog fan club, Louise McGrath and Darren Walsh, who likewise sent a generous donation towards buying a scale, but which instead went toward removing those certain portions of Zoe's innards. Zoe may not appreciate it, but I certainly do.

Speaking of Zoe, she and Saffy are back to being friends, though Zoe is much quieter than her usual self and hasn't bounced back from the surgery quite yet.

And now, it's time to go into the house and pour a glass of Bailey's to welcome in what I hope will be a much better year than the last.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, y'all!

The past couple of days, Querida has been climbing into my lap. This may not sound extraordinary, except that this is something she never does. She has never, ever been a lap cat or one to actively seek out affection, though she's become more affectionate as she's gotten older. As Dowager Empress, she demanded that attention be given only when she wanted to receive it, at her time and at her bidding.

Zoe is home, but it wasn't a peaceful homecoming. I had to get work done and Randy had an appointment in Bakersfield, so he picked her up. He said the drive home took ten years. I think he meant ten years off his life. He said Zoe was insanely pissed off and upset the entire way home. When we let her out here, Saffy immediately began attacking her, having apparently forgotten who she was in the intervening two days. We didn't want to leave Zoe unprotected while we had dinner, so I quickly set up the cage and left her in there. She was plenty unhappy about that, too, and made quite a mess for me to clean up.

She's out now and so far things are peaceful, but I think I'm going to let her spend the night in the cage as a precaution. She needs to be kept quiet at least one more night to recover from the surgery.

And now, a photo-adventure about cat toys and the short lives they can lead when exposed to the ravages of the Moggy Horde. It's not a pretty sight.

Pippin's To Do List:
   Chase Opal around the house.
   Knock over laundry basket so that the clean laundry and I go tumbling all over the floor.
   Chew up new cardboard box.

Opal's To Do List:
   Chase Pippin around the house.
   Knock the rubber frogs and rubber mouse into the bathtub.
   Sit quietly on clean laundry.
   Race out of the bedroom into the living room, leap onto the top of the cat furniture, leap to the top of the bookcase, through the bannister and up the stairs, in under five seconds with no pauses in motion whatsoever.

When I looked out the kitchen window this morning, I spotted Gizmo (the neighbor's very nice, young black cat) high in the branches of the sequoia. I've seen him there before. By odd coincidence, I hang the birdfeeder in the sequoia. I looked at him through my binoculars and he stared straight at me with big golden eyes. He knew, with that special sense cats have, that I was looking at him. He then worked his way down to the ground.

I think Sapphire misses Zoe. She wasn't very interested in fetching the fishy the morning.

Knobby is doing well. He came out begging for treats this morning and allowed me to clean him up, pill him, etc. Soon he may take to avoiding me, but for now it's going pretty well.

I have a problem with my car, so Randy drove us to Bakersfield this afternoon to drop the unfortunate Zoe at the vet to have her reproductive innards removed. She was highly vocal the entire way there. That's 45 non-stop minutes of "I AM NOT HAPPY ABOUT THIS!" in a great variety of tones and decibels.

I miss Zoe tonight. She's usually in my lap or in my face. However, Tribble is doing his best to take her place. He sheds a lot more hair into the keyboard than she does, though.

The moggies were extremely happy to see us after our three-day trip. Zoe, Sapphire and Kate played a continuous game of musical lap while I was at my computer, and most of the Horde came out to greet me. Afterwards, in the house, Pippin and Opal were all over us and made it clear they had missed us.

As we were coming home, we stopped off at one of the local restaurants for dinner and the first people we saw were our petsitters. That was handy. It gave me a chance to hear first-hand how things went. Tribble threw up once while I was gone.

Back on the 19th, I found evidence of a fight in my office. I figured it was Puck picking on Knobby, but when I checked out Knobby, I didn't find obvious signs of injury. I guess I didn't check well enough. I noticed Knobby hadn't come out to greet me or show up for food today. Randy came into the office around 6:30 tonight, went around to pet all the cats, located Knobby curled up on a shelf, and found a big hole in Knobby's neck. A couple of big, nasty holes, actually. It looks like he blew out a double abscess while I was gone, probably from two puncture wounds. Poor old guy.

I got a grip on him and cleaned it up, shaved the fur away from the injury, squirted a bunch of Neosporin into it and gave him some Amoxicillin. I try to always keep a supply of Amoxi around for exactly this reason. It wasn't a pleasant job.

One has to have a strong stomach to deal with moggies.

My next sacrificial victim, Zoe, goes to the vet tomorrow to be spayed on Thurs. I'll have to pick up more Amoxi while I'm there.

Henh, I'm listing to Radio Paradise (internet radio) and they're playing a Kate Bush song that features bird songs and it's driving the cats crazy.

We're going on a short trip, so there will be no Moggyblog for a couple of days. Which meant Randy and I opened our presents tonight. Pippin and Opal got to help in the categories of Paper Pouncing and Box Investigation.

Tribble survived his night in the cage and hasn't thrown up, so that's promising.

I received two replacement parts for the Spiral Penthouse today. When I first put it together, there was a problem with the screw that fastens the catbed at the top of the furniture, which left the catbed spinning freely rather than being tightly in place. The company quickly and painlessly sent the replacements. The new catbed piece is nice and secure, and the old catbed piece is tucked under my desk. No point letting it go to waste.

A friend sent me this link. It's a Wookie xmas carole. It spooked my moggies. Try it on your moggies!
http://christmaschebacca.ytmnd.com/

A happy holiday of whatever flavor you celebrate and I'll "see" you in a few days.

A reader wrote to me about her cat that dunks objects in the water bowl, so I guess mine aren't unique. {g}

Tribble threw up again last night, blast it. I'm thinking very seriously of putting up the cage and locking up Tribble at night, the same as I do with Owl, so that Tribble is also restricted to eating only the prescription food. He loves that food and it's easier for him to digest. He won't be happy about being locked up. The cage takes up a lot of space in the office, too. But the more I think about it, the more I think I should do it. If he keeps throwing up after eating only that food, I'll know I have a more serious problem on my hands. Well...I know that anyway, given how skinny he is. There just isn't a whole lot more I can do for the poor old guy.

Tosca stole one of Querida's Baytril, after I set it out on the desk and went looking for Querida. Tosca likes the taste of the Baytril, as near as I can tell, and I can no longer leave a piece of it where she can get to it.

I found a fish floating in the water bowl. It was a catnip-fish, of course. There was a second, equally soggy fish lying next to the bowl. What's extraordinary is that the tortie sisters, Opal and Sapphire, have developed the same behaviors while being completely separated from one another. They both independently began fetching their toys. Opal's been drowning her mousie for a long time, though this is the first time it's happened out here. Maybe it was accidental (though there were two wet fish). It brings up the whole issue of nature vs. nurture. I can't see how their mother could have taught them these particular behaviors. Could they have inherited such traits genetically? It's fascinating.

Opal does one amusing thing I haven't seen Saffy do. Opal uses her paw to knock pieces of dry food out of the bowl so she can eat them off the floor.

Buncha moggy photos: Sapphire, Puck, Jetta, Querida, Zoe, Tosca, Diva, Ariel.

I tried weighing Owl and Tribble on the old scale the vet loaned me. I was profoundly unhappy to see both of them have lost weight, if I can trust what that scale is telling me. Owl is seemingly down several ounces and Tribble is down a few ounces. This is not good given the extremes I've gone to with their diet and meds. I wish, wish, wish I had a reliable digital scale. Sigh...

Randy's presents arrived in a very large plastic mailing bag which has become an instant cat toy -- the Crinkly Plastic Cave! Much noisy fun has been had inside the bag.

Puck is showing too much interest in Zoe's rear end. I must get her fixed right after xmas.

It was obvious as soon as I walked into my office that there had been a fight. What gave it away? Oh, all the tufts of fur lying around the base of the Spiral, and even up on the steps of the Spiral. Not just a couple tufts of fur, but many. I can't be certain who was involved. The fur was dark, probably black. And since Puck continues to pick fights, I can fairly easily guess it was Puck picking on one of his favorite victims -- Knobby, Diva or Kate. I couldn't find any signs of injury, though Knobby seemed rather out of sorts, so he may have been the one who lost the fur.

After quite a long time of not throwing up, Tribble left me a patch to clean up this morning. I was hoping the new meds were keeping that under control. Still, this is the first time in weeks, which is better than before.

Both pieces of cat furniture continue to be a bit hit. Moving the Spiral next to the heater was my smartest move and there's nearly always a cat sleeping there now. In the house, Pippin and Opal have an absolutely wonderful time on their Treehouse, playing and climbing on it, and sleeping in it.

Ariel was playing with Saffy, a nice thing to see. Maybe the Feliway mister is affecting her, if not Puck. I know the mister is working now because the level of the liquid is steadling going down after I unplugged it, reaffixed the bottle and plugged it back in.

I notice that Owl, Querida and Tribble are doing a better job of eating their special pouch food now that I'm mashing it up. None of my cats seem to like food that has little square bits in it. They lick the sauce it comes in, but ignore the square bits. So lately, before I open a new pouch, I mash it with a brick. Yes, there's an image to reckon with. A grown woman mashing a plastic pouch of cat food with a brick. But hey, it works.

I've been working flat-out for the past few days to meet a script deadline. The moggies did their best to help, of course, mainly by providing plenty of distractions. Puck has not mellowed under the influence of the Feliway mister. If anything, he's gotten more playful, but I still have to keep playing cop with him when he picks on other cats. Saffy sat next to me and stared at invisible objects in the air with unnerving intensity. Tribble whined about food a lot. Zoe crawled into my lap frequently. In spite of all this, the script got done. ;)

I had to call the vet to get more antibiotics for Querida, who once again has blood in her urine. The vet kindly mailed them to me, as I didn't have time to make that blasted drive to Bakersfield. He's seen Querida enough and been through enough bouts of this to know what the situation is with her.

When I came into the office this morning, I saw a tabby curled up in the cat bed on top of the Spiral Penthouse. I went over and started to pet it, thinking it was Puck, but suddenly realized it was Ariel! For one breathless instant, I thought she might actually stay there and let me pet her, but in the next second, she decided that the NO TOUCHING rule was still in effect and leapt out of there. Ah, well. All I can do is keep trying.

I made one more adjustment to the location of the spiral furniture here in the office. I moved it out of the corner and right next to one of the heaters, which puts it a few feet to the right of me. The catbed at top now overhangs the heater. I figured this would made it even more attractive to the moggies, and I was right. Saffy was in it when I first came in and cats have come and gone all day. Puck is in it right now.

I also bought a laser pointer for the office moggies. It's a big hit. Theseus and the three kittens go berserk over it. Owl gives it quizzical looks. The rest of the older cats mostly ignore it.

I'm on a tight script deadline, so I may be scarce for a couple of days.

Today's offering is, as they say these days, a metric buttload of photos.

A general sampling of photos of the Moggy Horde.

Pippin and Opal enjoying their new treehouse.

The assembling of the Spiral Penthouse, with numerous cat inspections.

The cat furniture arrived today! The piece we put in the house came mostly assembled. It was quick and easy to put up. Pippin and Opal love it!

The other piece for the office was far more difficult. It was entirely in numerous pieces and was rather like a jigsaw puzzle. I spent about an hour screwing it together, discovered I'd made a major mistake, undid half of it, redid it and finally have it assembled. The office moggies were curious while I was working on it, but have been somewhere between baffled and wary about once it was up. Owl spent the entire time asking me, "What is it? What is it? What is it?"

I think they need some time to figure it out. I played with the kittens in and around it, and I sprinkled some Pixie Dust (catnip) on it, but they're still figuring it out.

I've taken a lot of photos, but those will take me some time to process. I'll put them up as soon as I can.

The unstoppable Zoe managed to squirm her way into the Cave yet again. Although I used bricks to lodge the weight scale over the hole at the top of the enclosure, she figured out how to force her way under the scale.

But I finally came up with something she can't move, budge or squirm under or around -- my old computer. It's mostly just an oversized paperweight now, with no hard drive, but it's the right size and plenty heavy enough to serve this purpose. Henh henh.

I've changed the feeding schedule slightly. Since the cats have access to dry food all night, I decided to stop giving them the canned food first thing in the morning. Instead, I'm giving it out after lunch. That seems to be working better. By that time, none of them have eaten for hours and are more than ready for it. I need a way to encourage Querida, Tribble and Owl to eat more of the Royal Canin pouch food, and this helps.

Puck went after Knobby today. Definitely no mellowness setting in yet.

The vet called and went over the results of Kate's blood work. Everything, with one single exception, everything came back normal and good. Kidney, liver, blood count is good. No diabetes. No thyroid problem. No infectious diseases...the only exception being a test that indicated that at some time in her life she was exposed to or had a particular corona virus. If it was current and active, she'd have peritonitis, but she certainly doesn't have that, so it's just a marker from something old. Probably the minor illness she had a couple of years ago.

All this good news means we still don't have a clue what's wrong with her. The next steps would involve looking for parasites in a fecal sample and x-raying her stomach. She could have cancer, of course. Or she could simply have an irritated stomach and be grouchy because of the kittens. At the moment, it remains a mystery.

For now, I'm going to keep an eye on her. The other tests will have to wait until I get caught up on what I owe the vet. I'm behind on my account by over a couple hundred dollars, and I don't want that to get out of control.

I brought inside a large set of wind chimes, now that winter has arrived. I hung them from my coat tree. Jetta swatted at the hanging wind paddle (or whatever it's called) and then ran off startled by the sound it produced. Any time a kitten decides to ring my chimes, they run off and look worried. Or when I take something on or off the stand and the chimes ring, the kittens jump up and run away. I'm sure that will wear off soon enough, but it's been amusing.

I've received some truly wonderful email recently from readers of this blog. The kind of email that makes me feel warm and fuzzy all over. Oh, wait, that's the cats. I had Tribble in my lap rubbing my hand while I tried to type and Zoe on the back of my chair licking my ear. With the cold temps lately and just the two heaters for warmth, I'm routinely surrounded by heaps of moggies cuddling up to the heaters and one another to get warm.

But as I was saying, it's been wonderful to know that the blog reaches people around the world and that everyday stories of cats can touch hearts and minds. Thank you all.

Whoa! Ariel just jumped onto my desk, immediately to the right of my keyboard. Seeing a tabby out of the corner of my eye, I assumed it was Zoe and reached out to stroke her back. You should have seen Ariel leap! I wonder what possessed her to do such a thing, given her firm rule against NO TOUCHING BY HUMANS.

No news on Kate's tests yet. I should certainly get news by tomorrow. I can hear Kate in the back corner of the office throwing up, poor thing.

Zoe managed to push aside the larger object I used to block the hole and get inside the Cave with Owl again. I realized it as soon as I came into my office and she wasn't there to greet me as usual. She was able to get inside, but this time she wasn't able to get out.

I rounded up a couple of bricks and used those to block off the hole. She hasn't found a way around those obstacles yet. {g}

It seems to me that the Feliway pheromone mister isn't working. It's been plugged in for a couple of weeks, but it doesn't look to me as though the level of the liquid has gone down at all. And I'm not seeing any mellowness around here either. I had to rescue Diva from Puck a couple of times. I guess I'll give it another couple of weeks, and if the liquid level hasn't changed, I can be pretty sure something's wrong with it.

Kate had her visit to the vet. She's only been to a vet a couple of times in her life and has been mostly healthy in the past. But she's 14 1/2 and getting up there in age. I won't get the results of the blood test until next week. I suspect she's hyperthyroid, given the weight loss and the condition of her fur getting worse (dry and coarse).

I put Owl in the Cave as usual last night, but Tribble desperately wanted to be inside and eat the special dry food, so I decided to leave both of them in there. It's rather small a space for two cats, but they get along and might even like sharing their warmth as the nights get colder. I figured it was worth the experiment.

This morning, I discovered that the irrepressible Zoe had wormed her way into the Cave and polished off the food. She is simply a fur-covered Hoover, the way she sucks up food. And naturally, whatever food Owl and Tribble had in their hideaway must be better than all the dry food that was outside, free for the taking. She does this all the time and I've gone to great lengths to keep her out of the Cave. I've had to place a heavy storage tub in front of the gate because Zoe manages to pry open the bottom corner of it and slither inside. Then she found a couple of small holes in the top part of the desk that forms the Cave and managed to squeeze down inside through the hole. I blocked that up, or so I thought.

She pushed aside the object I used to block the hole. When she was done eating all the food, she still managed to push open the bottom corner of the gate and get out because I was careless about how I'd placed the tub. From now on, I have to be sure the tub is set flush against the gate and will use something much heavier to block the hole.

Adorable little monster-kitten that she is. She's 7 months old now, and I haven't gotten her fixed yet. I shall have to deal with that next week.

That will leave only Pippin remaining to be fixed, but Randy is reluctant. He wants to hold off as long as possible before whacking Pippin, to let him fully grow and develop. I'm thinking Jan. for that to take place. Pip will be going on 10 months in Jan. and that's long enough.

I was updating my cat list, the list of every cat I've had from about 1973 onwards. The cats in the "Gone to Bast" section of the Horde page is only a tiny fraction of them. Per my list, I've had and lost 55 cats over the past 32 years. That's a fair number. Some were old cats I'd had a long time and some were kittens I only had a very short time, but they all count, bless their furry little souls.

Part of my usual routine in the morning is to go upstairs and let Pippin and Opal out of their room. My first morning back, I came out of the bathroom to find both of the frolicking on top of Randy who was still in bed. He said that while I was gone, they figured out how to open the door! Apparently, the door to that room doesn't always latch properly. They've been letting themselves out and coming down to greet him in the morning.

Ariel is sneezing. I hope she doesn't come down with something.

Pippin & Opal

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