Arrrggghh...Tosca is relieving herself anywhere except the cat box. Today was classic. My stepdaughter, Karynne, is in the Bay area for a few days. She lives in Sydney, so it's a rare and wonderful treat to see her. I was able to bring her by the house briefly to say hello to the old cats that she knows, Tosca and Kate, and meet the young ones.

Tosca gave her an enthusiastic greeting, then in the next five minutes she went to the area between the front of my desk and the back wall where she took an enormous pee half on the rug and half on my old vacuum cleaner. After which, she strolled over and took a steaming dump almost at Karynne's feet. Karynne wasn't fazed in the least. She laughed it off. She has a temperamental Burmese at home and knows cats.

I, however, am tired of the constant clean-up. I've given up and put one of the catboxes in the back corner of my office until Tosca gets over this problem. If she doesn't use that, I'll be really annoyed.

On a lighter note: Cat Rides a Roomba.

That is the world's most mellow cat.

I had to drag myself out of bed at 6 am, stumble down to my office and deal with a cat fight. Tosca crapped twice behind my desk, so I had to clean that up. Then while I was trying to coax Tosca out of hiding, Zoe jumped Kate. This is not good.

I had a talk with the vet and we're increasing the dose of Amitriptylene, but it's not like this is a long-term solution. I can't keep her on this stuff forever. As much as I adore Zoe, I fear a new home may be in order.

I'm continuing to have the occasional flare-up with Zoe. I end up having to search the office for stray crap because Tosca either craps where she is because she's in panic mode or is too scared to go to the cat box. Zoe chased her behind the washing machine, so now I have crap back there that I can't reach to clean up. Sigh....

In another attempt to calm the situation, I bought some ultra-expensive Feliway pheromone spray. I've sprayed that around the steps to the office because frequently these fights start when both Zoe and Tosca hear me on the other side of the door and are waiting for me to come out. I sprayed their cat beds and some places where Zoe and Jetta have been scratching. I hope it has some effect.

We had another bizarre incident with Pippin this morning. I had gotten out of the shower and about ten minutes later, Randy came into the bathroom. "Somebody shit in the shower," he said. We stared with astonishment at the huge steaming pile that clearly could only have come from Pippin.

And after that, he refused to come downstairs to eat. That made two things that were a radical departure from his usual behavior. Randy finally had to carry him down. Pippin was extremely unhappy about that, but once he got downstairs and saw that everything was all right, he ate and behaved more normally.

We're assuming there must have been another screaming fight in the office that totally freaked him out. Randy and I somehow managed to miss hearing it, but we can't come up with another explanation.

Pippin spent the rest of the day upstairs, as he generally does, but tonight Randy had to carry him downstairs again. Pippin wouldn't come down on his own. Yet another reason why I have to get Zoe's problem under control.

I'm afraid I really must buy one or two of these because...well, because I must.
The Crazy Cat Lady Action Figure!

Tosca went to the vet yesterday for a follow-up visit on her blood work for thyroid levels and FIP titres. She sang an aria to me the entire way, she sang in the waiting room, she sang for the vet tech and she sang all the way home. There's a reason she's named after an opera.

The vet called today with the results and the results are excellent! Her thyroid is very nicely under control and her FIP titres are all the way down to 1:400, a fraction of what they were before. This was far better news than I was expecting. I'm hoping it means that she has some other weird, less harmful form of coronavirus and not FIP.

Things are also going much better with Zoe now that I've increased and stabilized her dosage of Amitriptyline. The vet has given me a new prescription to replace what I have, which is a year past its expiration date. I'll pick that up at the pharmacy this weekend. I'll start with a smaller dose of the new prescription and see how it goes from there. The past few days have been blissfully calm and Tosca is acting more like her old self instead of hiding out under my desk.

I gave Zoe and Jetta each a new catnip mousie. Zoe used to love hers, but hasn't been all that interested in this one. Jetta is a catnip junkie and looooves her new mousie. The first thing she did was christen it with a dunking in the water bowl. A couple of times now, Jetta has jumped onto the desk carrying her mousie to get my praise and some petting, then trots off with it again. The next time I saw it, it was in her food bowl, perched on top of the dry food. She's such a funny girl.

We weighed Pippin for the first time in two months. In Sept., he was 21 bls. 10 oz. Now he's at 21.3. He lost seven whole ounces!!! Sigh...I'm afraid getting him back down to a "svelte" 18 lbs. is going to be a tough haul.

When I came into my office this morning, I found something I never thought I'd find in this particular office -- a small dead lizard. Where I used to live, this would be no surprise. It's not that are no lizards in the Bay area, but how it got in here to fall prey to the moggies is a mystery.

Hysterically funny cat video.

I need the laughs because things aren't going well with Zoe after all. Shortly after I made last night's entry, I went inside the house for the night and Zoe started a fight with Kate. I put Zoe in the cage for the night. That was hours after she'd gotten her trank, so it should have taken effect.

This morning after getting her trank, Zoe again went on the attack and backed Tosca into yet another deep, dark corner. I gave her a little bit more of the trank. I'll have to look into getting a fresh supply of the Amitriptyline because what I have is actually rather old and is about a year past the expiration date, so I suppose it may be losing its effectiveness as a drug.

I think I'm going to consult with a licensed cat behavior specialist. I recently came across one whose approach I like and given how little success I'm having, it might be worth the expenditure.

		Animal	All Bird Cat Dog Horse Pig Rabbit Reptile Small&Furry	Breed		Zip Code