I think Tosca is feeling better now that her thyroid meds have been cut in half and she's not being overdosed. She seems perkier. I was writing madly to meet a deadline and she decided that she must have attention, so she got in my face and asked for petting. I gave her some love and went back to work. She asked for more attention. I gave her some love and went back to work. This went on until she finallY got RIGHT IN MY FACE and yelled at the top of her lungs, "WAAAAUUUUWWW!" It was hard on the eardrums, not to mention being blasted by oceanfish cat food breath. Pewww.

So I picked her up and cuddled her in my lap, but she's not a lap cat. She tolerated that a short time before escaping. Then she perched on the other side and tried to meow in my face again. Instead she lost her footing, fell off the desk and took my keyboard with her. Sigh....cats. They're incorrigible.

Good news on Tosca! Her FIP reading was the same. I would have preferred to hear that it had gone down, but the fact that it hasn't gone up means that the vet doesn't think she has FIP. He said FIP would be progressive and the reading would have gone up. Now he thinks she has or had some kind of coronavirus, but not FIP. Plus she's otherwise healthy, except for the bronchial problem which he said is common in cats of her age.

Now we bite our fingernails until next Thurs. when the radiologist will evaluate Pippin's and Tosca's x-rays.

We're giving Pippin a measured amount of food to control how much he eats. So far, he has yet to eat the entire amount in a day. We have to feed them only when one of us is in the kitchen to supervise and make sure the right cat eats the right food. You know how cats are. "The food in that other cat's bowl MUST be better than what I have. I want that!"

A real mixed bag of news. Tosca was a hit at the vet's because she's such a sweet girl. She's gained a pound over the last two months, which is good news because it means her thyroid condition is being controlled. After discussing her hairball cough, the vet recommended x-rays, so it was the same drill of leaving her there and picking her up on my lunch break. I missed talking to the vet later. He left a message saying the x-rays showed "some bronchial changes" but no tumors. I need to find out what he means by "bronchial changes". The tense moment will be tomorrow when we get her FIP test back.

There's an unsettling result from Pippin's blood test. His red blood cell count is high, as in above what is considered the top end of the normal range. It's much higher than when he had blood work done a few months ago. The vet showed me Pippin's x-rays. The high RBC made him go back and look at the x-rays again where he spotted a bulge on the right side of Pippin's heart. That's the side that pumps blood to oxygenate the body, so the high RBC could be explained by the system overcompensating for a heart that might not be working quite right. Which could also explain his disinterest in being active and his breathing problems. We have to wait a week until his radiologist can look at the x-rays to give a more definitive opinion, but the vet thinks we'll need to do ultrasound.

Needless to say, Randy and I are now worried that Pippin has some sort of congenital heart problem. After losing our beloved Unicom to congestive heart failure all of a sudden, this is fairly devastating to think about.

We're restricting Pippy's food even more (controlled amounts), as I think it's more important than ever to get his weight down.

As I've mentioned before, we've become worried about Pippin's weight. Although we don't free feed any more, he manages to eat a lot in a short time. He's become so fat he can't groom himself properly, he won't play or engage in physical activity, and he wheezes. It was time for a trip to the vet.

And by Bast, he hates being put into a carrier. Hates it with a passion. I managed it, but he growled and hissed mightily. He was good with the vet, at least. Pippin has gone from about 18 lbs. last Oct. to nearly 20 lbs. The vet is concerned that he's so fat at such a young age (he'll be 3 next month). He's doing blood work and he's going to check for low thyroid, although he says low thyroid is so exceedinly rare, he's never actually encountered a cat with that problem.

Because I raised the wheezing and possible breathing issues, he suggested an x-ray. I left Pippin there for the morning and raced there to pick him up on my lunch break (Randy being at home feeling very sick). The vet called me after looking at the x-rays and he cracked me up. He said, "The x-rays show us two things. First, this is a big fat cat. Second, he has a huge stomach! He has a stomach the size of a Labrador Retriever! And it was full of food." LOL! This would explain the fat.

Pippin has always loved to eat. We named him Pippin (after the Hobbit) when he was an itty-kitty because he was adventurous and he loved to eat. At any rate, the vet didn't see any problems, other than the oversized stomach. We have to wait for the lab results, of course.

I suspect the thyroid will be normal and we will simply have to keep him on his current diet, plus try to find a way to keep his eating under control. Opal and Saffy are the ones who have it tough. They're wildly energetic and almost underweight, so it's hard on them to have diet food to eat and limited access to food.

Tomorrow morning it's Tosca's turn. I confess I'm worried about her. She continues with the unproductive hairball cough. It's very hard to get her to play and she used to be such a playful girl, not that long ago. I've made her happy the past couple of days by rearranging the cat furniture. There's barely room for it in this office, so it wasn't terribly accessible where I had it. I put it in a new place on the floor because she previously liked to lie in the bed on top. Instead, she's happy to use it as a way to get up onto my highest shelves. She settles onto a blanket I had originally put up there for Zebedee. I can tell that she enjoys being able to get up to a high spot again.

Saffy is so sweet. When I woke up, I found Mr. Scraps on the bed between Randy and me.

When we come for lunch or at night, she is always right there at the door to greet us.

All together now...awwwwwwwww.

It's harder to keep up the Moggyblog these days between the demands of full-time work and getting sick yet again. This time it's an ordinary head cold, but even that has knocked me off my productivity.

The Trio haven't worked out their differences quite yet. One second, Saffy will be licking Pippin's ears and the next they'll be taking whacks at one another; or Saffy and Opal will be playing side by side and suddenly end up with hisses and paw-boxing. I think Saffy misses her old friends who would cuddle with her and be affectionate.

Randy and I usually come home for lunch and we often find all three cats occupying the sofa, but Opal continues to do her burrowing routine and becomes a lump beneath the sofa cover. Of course, the sofa cover is supposed to keep the cats from getting too much hair on the sofa, but oh well.

Tosca and Kate are both doing well. Kate has a prodigious appetite and that does concern me a smidgen. Tosca continues trying to cough up the hairball without success. In about another couple of weeks it will be time to take her in to retest her thyroid levels and FIP titres. I'm debating whether I should wait that long or take her in sooner.

A friend at work sent me an article about a designer cat that sells for $22,000.00. Frankly, when I read something like that, I am completely disgusted. It makes me sick to think of all the good that my friend Lolette at Cause4Cats could do for hundreds of cats with that kind of money.

We had an unusual moment tonight. Randy had both Opal and Saffy cuddled up on his lap after dinner. They co-existed peacefully that way for about ten minutes, then Saffy licked at one of Opal's hind feet and Opal got bent out of shape about it and that was the end of that. But it was quite sweet while it lasted.

Tosca's appetite has calmed down and I think she's put on some weight. In a couple of weeks or so it will be time retest her and see where we stand on her condition. She's having problems with a hairball that she's been trying to cough up for weeks. I've given her hairball food and Petromalt and nothing is helping.

I'm slowly getting better, though I'm still coughing.

Things are slowly getting better in the house, too, as Opal and Saffy gradually work out an acceptance of one another. Opal isn't hissing any more, though she does take the occasional whack at Saffy. They will also romp around and take turns chasing one another, which never ends in fights, so that's a good thing. Opal has relaxed enough that she'll come out and chase the Red Bug around at night in spite of Saffy doing the same thing. They are so much alike in some ways and quite different in others. Saffy is showing the same tendency to burrow beneath covers and pillows, something she wasn't able to do when she was in my office.

Here's your moggy laugh for the day. Beware, you may get sucked into the YouTube black hole.

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