I meant to post something here before I left, but I ran out of time. I've been out of town visiting family on an extended Thanksgiving stay. I had a good kitten fix while I was there when I went to see a long-time friend who just adopted a new kitten. I spent an hour or so playing with the kitten while we talked. The kitten is an adorable ball of fluff, as you can see below.

My Horde was very happy to see me again. I don't know how well the pheromone mister has been working in my absence. I'm not sensing a lot of mellow so far. I'm just about out of all the cat food, both prescription and otherwise, so I'm afraid a trip to Bakersfield looms large in my immediate future. There's nothing more distracting than a horde of hungry moggies.

The pheromone mister thingie has arrived and has been plugged in. Now we can only wait and see. Oh, that's interesting. At the moment I typed those words, after the mister has been running maybe half an hour, Zoe (who was sleeping in my lap) put her nose into the air and began sniffing with unusual interest. Then she got out of my lap and went to the edge of my desk to do some more sniffing. Now she's simply sitting next to the keyboard looking at me. In the meantime, Saffy moved into the vacated lap.

Tribble is doing well so far. I haven't seen or found any indications that he's thrown up in the past few days. He really likes the prescription dry food, so I'm letting him have as much as he wants. Owl isn't as crazy about it, but at least he's eating it.

I had a nice moment yesterday when I came upon Ariel curled up in cat bed. She didn't jump up and run away, so I held out my fingers for her to sniff. She didn't move away, so I carefully stroked her back foot several times. She still didn't run away! I left it at that as I didn't want to push my luck.

This morning, however, she threw up a lot of clear liquid. I hope it was a one-off thing and that she's not sick. My greatest worry is that Ariel will be sick or get injured and it will be nearly impossible to deal with her.

I really don't want to give up on Puck too quickly, so I've decided to try something that a lovely blog reader suggested. I ordered a pheromone device that mists calming feline pheromones into the air. I'll be very curious to see what effect it has. My hope is that I'll get lucky and it will help not only Puck, but Owl and Ariel and everybody else. Maybe even me. ;)

Tribble had his day at the vet yesterday. I was surprised but very happy to discover he's added 4 ounces to his weight. It's not much, but in his condition, I'll go for very ounce we can get. Based on yesterday's blood tests, there's indication of some kind of gastrointestinal problem (possibly internal bleeding) rather than indications of kidney problems. I couldn't afford to go for a bunch of other, more expensive tests, so what we're trying now is to treat him as though he has the equivalent of an ulcer. He's getting a liquid version of Tagamet.

I also picked up some Royal Canin food that the vet prescribed for Querida, given that she does have renal problems. But I'm giving the food to Owl and Tribble at the same time. I figure it can't hurt.

I'm having a serious problem with Puck. I love and adore Puck. He was a cat who was quite determined about adopting us. He was a sweet, happy cat until we moved down here. He's been miserable for the past year and a half because he's locked up inside. Unfortunately, his unhappiness and frustration is turning into worse and worse aggression against the other cats. He was threatening Knobby and I broke that up before it got started. He immediately turned around and attacked Kate. He chased her around the office and beat her up. I chased him around and finally got hold of him briefly. He got away from me, ran over and attacked Owl. I finally grabbed Puck and locked him up in the Cave to cool off. Kate and Owl don't seem to be injured, but they were badly freaked out by the unexpected and nasty attacks.

This just isn't working. I'm afraid I'll have to find a new home for Puck where he can be both an indoor and outdoor cat. I sincerely doubt he will ever be happy again without that option.

I had a big laugh upon going into the kitchen last night and finding a rubber frog on the floor in front of the fridge. This is so funny because he's one of three rubber frogs that live in the shower. Either he made a break for it, or one of the kittens decided to take him for a trip to the kitchen.

Owl is on my desk saying, "It's DINNER TIME! Get off the computer! Feed me!" I must obey.

I once again have Zoe and Saffy heaped in my lap, one atop the other. It's no wonder I come in from my office with my shoulder muscles knotted trying to work around the sprawling, furry mass.

Tribble goes to the vet yet again tomorrow. He has been throwing up buckets and throwing up frequently. I've also heard him sneeze a few times, so possibly he has a cat cold. I'm not sure what the vet can possibly do at this stage, but if Tribble gets any thinner, he'll fade away.

We have a wonderful time watching Pippin catch dust motes. Pippin sits in beams of light coming through slatted blinds in the living room in the afternoon. Bits of dust and hair float in the air, lit by the beams. He watches them, fascinated, his head turning this way and that. The sunlight glistens off his ebony whiskers. Then he stands up and tries to clamp the mote between his front paws. They always elude him, but he keeps trying.

I also had Querida at the vet when I was there with Sly. The vet had asked me to bring her back for a follow-up check as soon as I could. He thought she sounded good and the recheck on her kidney functions came out fairly well. She seems to be under control for now, though she does continue to throw up.

So does Tribble and he's now throwing up frequently, like almost every time he eats. This is not good, given how painfully thin he is. Somehow he still has energy and gets around all right, but I'm going to try adding formula to soft food for him to see if that helps.

I had a brief discussion again with the vet about Owl's IBS. I'm still seeing blood in his stools. Consequently, I bought special dry food for him and have instituted a new feeding regimen so that this food is the only thing he gets. As you might imagine with so many other cats and the kittens, this is not easy.

Owl is being locked up in the Cave at night with his food. First thing in the morning, I put away the bowls of regular dry food, let Owl out of the Cave, dole out the pills. Then I give Tribble, Querida and Owl their baby food inside the Cave (mainly to keep the kittens out). I let Tribble and Querida out. I put Owl's dry food in the Cave with him. I give out the canned food to the rest of the cats. I change the water and clean the cats boxes. By that time, the rest of the Horde have polished off the canned food. I let Owl out.

The cats go without food until about mid-afternoon. I put Owl back in the Cave with his dry food and put the other dry food out for about 15 minutes. Then I put all the food away and let Owl out.

Finally, when I wrap up for the night, I give out the pills, lock Owl in the Cave with his food for the night, and put out the dry food for the Horde.

Owl promptly went on a hunger strike. He did NOT want to eat that food. On the first day, when I came back to my office after lunch, Querida was quacking most petulantly at me until I realized she was saying, "WHERE'S THE DAMNED FOOD?!!"

Owl broke down and ate his new food this afternoon. He's also been protesting by throwing up. I had to wash the cover on his cat bed yesterday.

I'm a bit worried about how this regimen will be carried out when I'm out of town, but I guess I'll just have to work that out somehow.

As I greatly feared, Sly's illness was fatal. I had a painful intuition that he was making a one-way trip to the vet. It was advanced liver disease, probably cancer. The vet found abnormalities on the liver using ultrasound. Sly was severely jaundiced, in addition to not being able to eat or drink and having lost so much weight. There was nothing I could do except end his pain. I rested his head on my hand and stroked him while the vet gave him the injection. Sly was his usual sweet, gentle self to the end.

SLY ??? to 10 Nov. 2005. May you romp forever in sunny fields of catnip filled with lazy, fat mice and low, slow birds.

Sly is sick, very sick. I haven't mentioned it because of the distraction of all the other sick cats, but I've been watching him closely for weeks now. He was occasionally throwing up. However, he's gone downhill rapidly in the past few days. I can see he's lost weight and he's completely lethargic. I haven't been able to get him to eat anything, even canned food or baby food. I discovered last night that he had pus in one eye, so I'm treating that with eye ointment, which I keep on hand for just this sort of reason. He's theoretically about 13 years old, but I don't know for sure and I suspect he's older than that. I know he had some siblings that all died years ago.

Unfortunately, I have a business trip today, so I can't get him to the vet until tomorrow.

We're not sure what's going on, but Opal has become obsessive about drowning her mousies in the water bowl. We've lost count of the number of times we've pulled a soggy mousie from the water. Hmmm...maybe they've discovered they can get high from the catnip-infused water. Ah hah! They're stoner kittens.

Last night, Pippin was sitting in his favorite silly pose on the sofa, propped up against Randy with his feet in the air. And he gave us a magnificent display of his little red penis. "Look, I'm a boy! I'm a boy!" Randy wants to wait a while longer before we have Pippin fixed. I'm just glad we already took care of that with Opal. Which reminds me that Zoe's time has come. Must do that soon.

Zoe has become a nearly permanent lap feature. This makes it tough for any other cat ot get in my lap, such as Sapphire. I love having Zoe in my lap and I don't want to force her away, but I'd like the other cats to have a chance, too. Its a quandry.

I've had to chastize Kate severely a couple of times tonight for being so nasty to the young cats. Her bad temper continues.

The moggies are gathering around. They know it's that time of night, when I give out the pills, and more importantly, the TREATS. The dedicated treat fanatics are Zoe, Sapphire, Tosca and Diva. They will mug me for treats. Owl has shown a renewed interest in treats lately, which I'm rather glad to see. Trying to give treats to the other moggies without Zoe stealing it away is a challenge.

Querida got into my lap this afternoon. This is unusual behavior for her. She has never been a lap cat and rarely seeks out that kind of attention. Needless to say, I was pleased to have her there and gave her as much loving as she was willing to take. Querida only allows petting on her terms.

Opal keeps dropping her mousie in the water bowl where the water becomes catnip-infused. We now have rotating mousies, with a spare one on hand so that while one is drying out, there is one for her to continue batting under the refrigerator. Never let it be said we don't cater to the needs of our moggies.

I have discovered that a 7-month-old kitten's body can very effectively block the signal between a wireless mouse and keyboard and the transmitter. The transmitter has been moved to higher ground. Suddenly, the keyboard works again! Or until the cat hair overcomes it.

Owl went to the vet yesterday. He's gained an ounce in the past couple of weeks, which is hopeful news. Consequently, the vet wants me to keep him on the thyroid medicine and test his thyroid levels a couple of weeks from now. Owl has now pulled a large patch of hair from the left side of his back, in spite of the anti-histamines. The vet felt strongly that this wasn't the type of problem that would be caused by low thyroid or reaction to that medicine. Like every other vet before him, it is a mystery and he had no idea what to do about it, except give him hairball gel for the inevitable hairballs. I started Owl on Lysine a few days ago. I figure it can't hurt, but I sure wish I could solve this problem.

I've run out of Baytril for Tribble and Querida. I discussed it with the vet. Since it doesn't seem to be doing either one of them much good at the moment, we're taking them off it to see what happens.

I now have the vet's weight scale at home. He warned me it was an old one, and he wasn't kidding. It's not especially accurate either. Owl weighs a pound less on this one than he did at the vet's office. I took baseline weights for Owl, Tribble and Querida. Even if the scale isn't totally accurate, I can at least get a sense of whether they are gaining or losing weight. That's my main concern.

The kittens disembowelled two of their catnip toys. I've been picking up bits of catnip-laced stuffing from one end of the office to another. I suppose I should stop calling them kittens, now that they're seven months old, but I suspect they'll be kittens to me until they're full grown.

Opal's mousie had become disgusting from its many visits to the underbelly of the beast...I mean the refrigerator, so today it went through the washer with the laundry. Came out really well, too. She has a nice clean mousie with a fresh-stuffed belly of catnip.

I belately realized that we've had Ariel a year now. She came home with us Oct. 9th of last year. A year later, I still can't pet her, but I can get close and she's getting along fine as a member of the Horde. I'll keep working toward the day when I can actually touch her and she won't run away.

My wonderful vet called to say he had the weight scale at his office and I could pick it up any time. Since we need to do a follow-up on Owl, I made an appointment for tomorrow. My hunch is that the thyroid therapy isn't working, or at least isn't doing Owl any good, but I need to confirm that.

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