I had a long talk with the vet about Zoe's situation. I also talked to him about Saffy, but I'll save that for another day. The upshot of the consultation is that I haven't been dosing Zoe correctly, which is part of the problem, and he thinks I'll need to keep her on the Amitriptyline for many months. I was concerned about long-term effects, but he recommends this as the safest choice amongst the various types of kitty "prozac". So I've adjusted her dosage and am giving it to her twice a day.

So far, things are going extremely well. I no longer have to put Zoe in the cage at night and I think that one change alone has made her a much happier cat. Tosca seems to be relaxing. She's out and about more than she has been for the past couple of weeks. Now that I know I can keep Zoe on the prozac long-term, I feel hopeful. After a few months, I can think about trying to slowly wean her off it.

Good wishes for Samhain to one and all. Happy Celtic New Year!

We had a wonderful trip and the moggies were extremely happy to have us home again. The petsitter left Zoe inside her cage on the day we headed home because she suspected she'd been fighting with Tosca. Things seemed pretty quiet the past couple of days, so today I decided once again to try not giving Zoe her trank this morning.

Over the following couple of hours, Zoe got into a nasty confrontation with Kate and then a fight with Jetta. I thought Jetta was the one cat she wouldn't fight with! I gave her the trank and let her have a time-out in the cage until it could take effect, but this really isn't a good situation. The trank is having an unpleasant effect on her guts, too. It's time for another discussion with the vet.

Things haven't been going well, I'm afraid. Even on the trank, Zoe continues to be a problem. Worse yet, Jetta is taking cues from Zoe and is making aggressive moves toward Tosca as well. And tonight for the first time, Kate was growling and hissing and very upset with Zoe who must have been bothering her. Kate was doing fine until now.

Tomorrow we leave for a mini-vacation for several days. I've filled in the sitter on the situation. She'll have to continue giving Zoe the trank and put her in the cage overnight. Next week, if I can't see any signs of improvement at all, I may have to start looking for a new home for Zoe.

Well, damn, I thought I was making progress, so I weaned Zoe off the trank and was leaving her out of the cage more, but today she went back to viciously attacking Tosca. So it's back on the trank and more "time out" in the cage until she gets the message.

It reminds me, to a lesser degree, of what I went through with Nefreet. She was a relatively normal little cat until I took her in to be fixed. Something went horribly wrong and she was left in a permanent pyschotic state. She would instantly attack any cat that tried to come near me. I despaired of doing anything to help her as months passed. I even considered the possibility of having her put to sleep. I perservered and though she was never normal again, with a lot of stern discipline we reached a level of stability.

With luck and determination, I hope for better results with Zoe.

And now for something completely different. I'm way behind on returning the generosity of two publishers who sent me review copies of their cat books. Today is catch-up day.

I'll start with the book I received first: Dewey, the Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World, by Vicki Myron with Bret Witter. I don't have much time to read these days, so I'm only partway through it, but I highly recommend the book. The writing is straightforward and down-to-earth, while evocative and engaging. It's the story of a tiny frozen orange tabby kitten shoved into a book slot at the libary one winter morning. He survived and had a happy life as the libary cat of Spencer, Iowa.

What I really like about the book is that it isn't just about the cat, which is heart-warming enough. It's also the life and times of a small midwestern town struggling to survive, and how something as small as a cat can change lives. I come from a midwestern town that has been in a long, slow decline, so the story of the town and the cat strikes a chord with me. Here's to Dewey and the ageless parade of wonderful cats who make our lives better.


This link will take you to the book on amazon.com

The second book is also delightful: Chicken Soup for the Soul: Loving Our Cats: Heartwarming and Humorous Stories about our Feline Family Members, compiled by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Amy Newmark. It's book of 101 very short true-life stories. They cover the gamut of emotions, as you might imagine, mostly on the upbeat and heartwarming side from the grazing I've done so far. What's nice is that the stories are little bite-sized chunks, so it's easy to pick it up when you only have a few minutes to read, or read it during a commute, etc.


This link will take you to the book on amazon.com

Things have been quiet, no more fights. I've had Zoe on the anti-anxiety drug, plus she's spent the past few days resting in her cage when I'm not around to supervise. Today, I left her out while we were at work and there was no sign of trouble. Zoe has calmed down, but now I need to get Tosca to stop being reactively defensive. She's starting to calm down, too. With luck, I won't have to do this too much longer. Just to be safe, I consulted with the vet about the trank I'm giving Zoe and he was perfectly okay with it. It's a safe drug and I figured the dosage right. I'll wean her off it in another couple of days, I think, and see how that goes.

We figured out what happened with Pippin. The problem isn't with Pippy at all. The problem is with cute little skinny Zoe. The hellion side of Zoe has surfaced.

Starting apparently Friday afternoon before we got home, Zoe decided that she needs to kill Tosca. These are serious, nasty fights and poor Tosca has gone into hiding in the deepest hole she can find. I've had Stern Words with Zoe and have disciplined her, but it doesn't seem to be helping. The situation is unacceptable.


As for how that explains Pippin, neither Pippin nor Opal were raised around other cats. They grew up quietly and happily together. When they hear the screaming and screeching and death threats going on in my office, they freak out. They race upstairs and hide and don't want to come down. Also, their cat box is right next to the door to the garage. I can now understand why Pippin was cowering upstairs and why he was too scared to go down and use his catbox. By today, he's gotten used to it enough to be downstairs and eat, but Opal isn't adjusting as well. Saffy was raised around Zoe, Tosca and lots of other cats, so she doesn't react the same way to the sounds.

So far, I haven't seen actual damage on Tosca, but I was unable to coax her out of her hiding spot even for canned food. I put food next to her and she ate with me standing guard, but this can't go on. I have some kitty "valium" on hand and I've started very carefully giving a small dosage of that to Zoe to see if I can get her to calm down. It isn't having much effect yet.

I had another con guest appearance this weekend. On the way home, I stopped off at Petsmart and bought a large wire-frame dog cage, the same kind I used to have. I donated the previous one to Cause4Cats when I moved up here, thinking I wouldn't need it again. Tonight, Zoe sleeps in the cage so that Tosca can have some freedom. I have no idea what brought on this sudden psychotic behavior as everybody was getting along just fine for the first couple of weeks. I haven't seen any indication of Tosca being aggressive. Fortunately, Zoe isn't targeting Kate, but I have to break Zoe out of this aggressive cycle before it becomes too set, and before Tosca's health suffers as a result.

If I can't break of this behavior...I may have to find Zoe a new home. Not only would I hate that, but it would be highly problematic trying to adopt out a cat that is FIP positive.

We had a scare with Pippin this evening. When we came home from work, Saffy and Opal greeted us as usual. Pippin often comes running down the stairs to greet us, but this time he didn't. Lately, he's been spending time under the bed, which is odd for him. Randy went upstairs to find him, then urgently called me.

Pippin was back in a small, secluded corner of Randy's office looking unhappy and there was a pile of turds not far away that could only have come from him. This is abnormal behavior. He has never failed to use the cat box and he doesn't go into this corner of the room.

Randy picked him up and brought him into our bedroom so we could check him out. Pippin didn't show any particular signs of distress and in a little while he followed us downstairs and ate normally. We had a long debate and ultimately decided against taking him to an emergency room because he seemed okay. We've suspected for a long time, though, that he may have some underlying neurological or other problem that occasionally causes him to have tremors or maybe even convulsions. On one occasion, we saw him pass out and fall over for a few seconds. This totally freaks him out. If something like that happened, it wouldn't be unusual to have an uncontrolled evacuation and then want to hide out.

We're taking him to the vet as soon as we can get him in. One of his quirks was a high red blood cell count that the vet could never explain, but now it's time to push harder into looking for anything that can explain this incident and maybe explain his weight problem, too.

I was gone this last weekend as the guest of honor at Jemcon in L.A. I got home Sun. night, then had to get up really early Mon. to take Zoe and Jetta to the vet for complete blood work-up and tests.

Everyone has settled in now. The micro-hissy-fits have faded away, though Zoe can be a snot now and then. They're both eating with tremendous appetite. I'm giving out canned food twice a day to fatten them up.

Jetta weighed in at a bit over 9 lbs., which is about right for her. She could use a little more wieght. But Zoe was only 7 lbs. and some and the vet agreed that she's way underweight. He wants to see her gain about 3 lbs. She also has a touch of gingevitis on her front teeth, which he said was unusual but nothing to worry about.

He called yesterday with the results and the news is good. Both girls had excellent, healthy results on their blood tests. Jetta tested negative on all the virus tests. Zoe tested negative on everything except the FIP titres, but the result was only 1:100, an extremely low number. The vet says that only indicates that she was exposed to FIP at some time. And of course, she was around Zebedee. The thing now is watch for her to gain weight over the next couple of months. If she gains weight, there should be nothing to worry about. The vet and I are hoping that being in a happy, secure situation will be all that she needs.

If she doesn't gain weight...then I get her FIP titres retested.

Meanwhile, they're both very happy kitties.

I had a good laugh this morning when I came out and found a mousie in the water bowl. Either Zoe learned to do that from Saffy way back when, or Jetta has inherited the food washing gene like her sisters!

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