Kate had her last Clavamox tonight, thank Bast. Now I only have to give her one pill a day until she's done with the steroids. I've also been giving her acidophilis because the Clavamox is always so hard on her guts. It seems to have helped.

Proof #2313 that cats understand English when they want to: I was trying to clean the catbox next to my desk and Jetta was tromping around in it getting in my way. I quietly said, "You know, there's another catbox you could use." She immediately jumped out, went to the other box and did her business.

For three blisfful days, Kate was taking her pills in her gooshy food. Then she noticed and she wasn't having anything more to do with spiked gooshy food. And let me tell you, she is not an easy cat to get a pill into, let alone three pills a day. I've found that the best tactic is to catch her unawares and give her the pill while she's surprised. If she gets so much as a nanosecond to realize what I'm up to, I have a tough time of it. It's made her ever so slightly wary of me, of course, but she's hanging out in my lap in spite of that.

And now, the traditional "cute cats in xmas wrapping paper" photospread.

Saffy

Opal (the only one I managed to get of her)

Saffy

Saffy

Saffy

Saffy: "This angle makes me look fat!"

I've been worried about Kate lately as her appetite has decreased and her weight has dropped. She eats pretty well, but not nearly as much as she did before. The vet did a full senior panel on her and we're checking especially for kidney problems. I was right about the weight loss. She's dropped a pound since July and is only a little over 6 lbs. I've also been noticing a problem with her claws getting caught in carpet, but Kate refuses to let me clip her claws. I asked the vet to do that for me and they found that a couple of her claws had gotten long enough to curl around and grow into the pads of her feet! I feel horrible. What a terrible cat mother I am to let that happen. They gave me antibiotics because there's a little bit of infection (not enough to account for her weight loss) and I need to keep her feet clean. Poor old girl! She got into my lap a short time ago, so I've been forgiven.

Wow, the vet called me with the results already. Usually, it takes a day. There's a mix of good news-bad news. What's good is that her bloodwork and urinalysis were normal. In fact, he said it was remarkably good for a cat this old. The downside is that something else must be causing the appetite and weight loss. The most likely culprits are IBS or intestinal cancer. We're going to try her on a course of Prednizone, which would deal with an inflammation. Then it becomes a matter of wait-and-see.

Pippin may be the next one to the vet. His diarrhea has gotten worse and is pretty severe now, so if it doesn't clear up soon, in he goes. I weighed him yesterday and he's up to 22 pounds! Gahhh! He's on a diet and he still gained a whole pound! I see no choice except to cut back his portions a bit more.

Moggies 2: Christy 0 -- I tried moving the cat box away from my desk because I don't enjoy having the smell so close to me. I was hoping that the Zoe situation had calmed down enough for Tosca to use the box in the original location. First, I was awarded with a puddle of urine where the box had been. Today, I was greeting by a large, healthy steaming pile of doo next to my desk. Yes, I get the message. The catbox has been returned. Sigh....

Randy was woken this morning by Opal who brought a mousie to him in bed and insisted he wake up to thank her for it.

I dropped a piece of broccoli on the kitchen floor. Saffy found it and proudly carried it off as her new trophy. I found it again on the hearth of the fireplace. She didn't want to eat it, she just wanted to carry it around.

Now Pippin is the one with a touch of diarrhea! Poor boy, we've had to clean his butt a couple of times today. He's too fat to clean himself!

I never did find out who had the diarrhea and it seems to have cleared up on its own. It started during the week I was gone, so perhaps it was stress related. I continue to have occasional problems with Zoe, but at other times I'll even see Zoe and Tosca touch noses. As long as Zoe's on the trank, things seem to go all right. Zoe spends a lot of time in my lap when I'm at the computer. If it were up to her, I'd be her lap-bed for 12 hours a day, I think.

An interesting article on the evolutionary difference in how cats and dogs utilize energy while hunting. You may be surprised to read that cats aren't at all efficient in their use of energy.

Thanks to Alex Burr for showing me this one: a real-life cat burglar! This is what my tortie girls would probably do if I let them go outside! And Jetta, too, for that matter. Jetta is quite avid at playing fetch-the-mousie.

Zoe is giving me fits with her cunning ability to absolutely convince me I've gotten a pill down her throat, only to find a pill lying on the carpet much later. She went after Jetta last night and I had to catch her to break it up. I wondered why that suddenly flared up, then I found the pill she'd spit out. I've given a lot of pills to a lot of cats over the years and they don't usually fool me. Zoe is a regular pill-spitting ninja.

To her deep unhapiness, Kate spent the night tucked away in the big wire dog crate that I set up originally for Zoe. I haven't been using the crate, but it remains in place and I decided to put Kate there overnight to further determine who has the severe diarrhea.

Not Kate. She left something solid in the box. By process of elmination (you should pardon the stinky pun), it's leaning towards Tosca as having the problem. I wish I could catch her in the act to be sure. I think putting her in the crate overnight would be entirely too stresful for her, though. If it's her, it could be the result of being stressed because of Zoe, in which case I don't know how much the vet could do about it.

Meanwhile, someone crapped under my desk again, even with a catbox only a few feet away. Sigh....

As usual, the moggies were happy to see me after being gone for over a week. Randy was here most of the time, but was gone for a couple of days, so they were doubly glad to have both of us back.

Unfortunately, I still had to rescue Tosca from Zoe once since getting back. And somebody has severe diarrhea. I've narrowed it down to Kate or Tosca. Jetta never seems to have health problems and Zoe has mild diarrhea, but not as bad as the other stuff I'm seeing. I suspect Kate because I caught her throwing up. I hope I can figure it out soon because it's a pretty nasty case of it. It could be severe stress, caused by the Zoe-vs-Tosca situation, or it could be a health issue, which is another reason I need to figure out who's doing what.

For some mysterious reason, Saffy started crying in the pre-dawn hours. She wandered the house making plaintive cries when she's usually asleep on the bed with us. She's been more needy than usual lately. We haven't been able to divine what she wants from us. She gets plenty of love, attention, food, etc. Perhaps our adoration hasn't been ardent enough.

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