Taking Herself For A Walk

I was taking a walk at Cherry Park recently when I saw this lady arrive with her dog. I couldn't see a leash and wondered if she was going to trust her dog not to run off.

Sorry it's so blurry but all three of us were moving.

Then I understood.. sort of. The dog was taking herself for a walk. 

Lupe's Dental

Lupe did have to have a tooth pulled. Due to the anesthesia she was very befuddled when we brought her home and she tore out of her cat carrier like she was possessed! Of course she had very poor motor control, so what part of the house did she aim for? Right for the stairs and went tumbling down. With my heart in my throat I ran down to find her hiding in the piano room, fortunately none the worse for her unintended slalom down the stairs. Thank God our stairs are carpeted and she landed on carpet at the bottom. As many cats as I've brought home after being put under anesthesia none have ever done that; they usually just tumble out of the carrier and swagger drunkenly for a couple of hours, but I learned my lesson. By 10 pm most of the loopiness wore off and we could let her go anywhere she wanted. She loved her pain pill this morning (chicken-flavored pill pocket is the way to go!) and she's back to normal.

That's why we call her Loopi-Lu!

Kitty Vet Appointments

Although I'm not sure how wise it is to spend a butt-load of money right before the holidays we decided to take all five of our (remaining) kitties for their check ups. Now that they are all either geriatric or Golden Girls-in-training (and one boy) I will be taking them more regularly. The happy news is they checked out A-OK. The worst thing we have is some dirty teeth that need cleaning and maybe pulling. That and some fantastic tubbiness.

I took them in twos, with a single appointment at the end for Tippy, the oldest. We think she's about 13 1/2. Chappu and Frosty Paws went first; I can't be sure but I think Chappu is 9 and Frosty 10. Both of their blood panels came back normal, particularly amazing for Frosty since he's about the size of a small Volkswagen. They both need their teeth cleaned.

Tippy nestled between Chappu and the hulk.

Then came Banu and Lupe. Both of their blood panels also were normal but Lupe's teeth are pretty bad. She has an appointment to get her teeth cleaned and probably one tooth removed. Banu's teeth were great. She eats only dry food, though wet is supposed to be healthier. Dr. F said the dry food may be part of the reason her teeth are in such good shape.

Lupe and Banu, prisoners lookin' for a way out.

Saving the best for last, our little old Tippy is fine too! Since all but her front teeth were pulled years ago due to decay & gingivitis, her remaining teeth are fine. He checked her for glaucoma: her pressures were normal. Her blood panel & urine specimen were also normal. Better yet, her blood pressure, for which she is taking Atenlol daily, was totally normal. The heart murmur which Dr. F discovered about two years ago and deemed a grade 3 out of 4 (pretty significant) was not audible. Now, heart murmurs don't go away, so my thinking is that with her hypertension under control the sound of blood rushing through her heart wasn't as noisy. Needless to say, since we just lost Obi who was also 13 1/2, hearing that Tippy was in great shape brought happy tears to my eyes.

 I pulled this picture of Tippy and Obi from the time when he lived on Tippy's side of the divide. I'm not ready to blog about him yet, but I loved how gentle he was with her and their closeness.

And a video of Tippy taking a bath. It's at least one and a half years ago since our living room wall was pink.

Thanksgiving 2013

Last Thanksgiving we had David join us. This year S invited Lisa and Dan & family. Lisa is very open to vegetarian fare, Dan less so, but he was a good sport and tried everything including the Tofurkey. I guess I know how he felt about it though since he went back for seconds for everything but the Tofurkey. :-)

Other than the Tofurkey we actually have a very standard American Thanksgiving menu: stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, corn (Lisa & Dan brought that), cranberry sauce, gravy, and pumpkin pie. Everything was vegetarian of course. My better half said it was the tastiest Thanksgiving yet. I think that's because he likes the Tofukey 'turkey' better than the Quorn 'turkey'.

I tried and failed to get the entire group in the picture, so...

... here's the right side of the table and...

... here's the left side of the table. The little girl at the head of the table is Dan & Lisa's first born, Josie. Taylor who is 2 1/2 months old was asleep in the car seat carrier.

Josie proved the old adage that the tryptophan in turkey will knock you out! Actually since we didn't have turkey it was probably just her nap time.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Keeping An Outdoor Cat Healthy & Happy

You know my feelings about domestic cats living outside, with the increased potential for danger and disease not to mention extreme discomfort from the vagaries of Mother Nature. I blogged recently about our efforts to create safe places for Sherbet in the area he considers home. During the week when I work I pretty much just feed and love him, but there is a small amount of upkeep that I do on some weekends.

Today was my day to take a look at his little house. The website I got the idea from said to keep the straw clean and dry. I also wanted to check it to see if there was any evidence that he's actually using it, even though I think I smell straw on his fur sometimes.

Indeed, much of the straw had been shoved up into one corner (toward the top of the photograph) and there were two leaves (toward the bottom of the photograph) that he must have brought in on his hoofies. You may not be able to see it but there is also a cat-assed size depression in the middle-top section of the straw where he must nestle.

I added some more straw because the weather forecast for tomorrow and the early part of the week is for temps in the 20's and 30's and some rain too. Brrrr. Yuk. I hope this box makes a big difference for him.

While I was working on his little house and replenishing the camouflage on his feeding tunnel, Sherbet happily watched me from my mat. This mat used to be in our bathroom; it's padded and soft. I use it to protect my clothes from the dirt and moisture of the ground and return it to my car each time. Sherbet has taken a clear liking to it and I have to physically remove him from it - he doesn't give it up easily. Precious bubsy.



Addendum: This morning (day after this post) it was 32 degrees outside. I saw Sherbet come out of the bush where his little house is located. He is definitely using it.  :-)

Cute Video

Sorry I haven't been blogging recently. We've been watching "Breaking Bad" in every free minute.

 Till I return, here's a video I thought was cute. Ginger Cat looks a bit like Sherbet.

Building Sherbert Two Shelters

Last winter when the weather got really cold and rainy/snowy I worried about Sherbet a lot. Sure he survived but if you love someone you want them to be comfortable not merely survive. I spoke with Saeed about building him a couple of shelters: one to prevent his food from getting soaked and one for him to enter and nestled down into for warmth. I looked on the Humane Society's website for suggestions for how to build a feral cat shelter and Amazon.com for ideas about a feeding station. This is what we came up with...

Saeed built the feeding platform by nailing a laminated concrete board onto two 2 x 4's for the base. Elevating the concrete board allows the flooring to stay dry even if there are two inches of water standing from a downpour.

We bought a piece of plexiglass that could bend enough to form a tunnel.

The trick now was to attach the plexiglass without splitting it.

Ta da! Long enough so Sherbet can crawl inside...

... and eat dry food without getting soaked himself.

We nestled it under some branches near his current eating area.

We then camouflaged it by covering it with straw (see it to the left there?) to prevent curious people from checking it out and maybe taking it.  I placed his bowls in the usual place so he'd get used to the new tunnel. One day recently it was raining and I put his dry food bowl in the tunnel and then watched as Sherbet crawled right in!

The day we first put it out there though, he was watching us carefully through the tree branches.

For my project I needed a piece of insulation foam board...

... and a plastic bin with a lid.

I had to measure and cut a 6 x 6 inch hole on each side. I know it sounds counter intuitive to cut two holes in a shelter when you're trying to keep a kitty warm, but a feral cat needs to know it can escape if it has to.

Tippy tried out the hole and said it was just right.

She didn't stay long.

Cutting the foam insulation board to the right size was harder than I thought it would be, mainly because the plastic bin I bought was tapered. The sides at the bottom had to be cut narrower than the sides at the top.

If I do this again I will buy a bin that is straight up and down with no tapering, but I managed to fit the pieces in. After cutting holes in the insulation where the doors were I duck taped the edges so Sherbet wouldn't accidentally brush against the raw edges of the foam board and dislodge it. I also put a sheet of insulation in the lid so the bin was truly insulated on all six sides, and the metallic side was placed facing inside so the cat's own body heat can be reflected back.

The instructions then said to put plenty of straw inside the box (specifically straw) so the kitty can burrow and cover itself. I put more in after I snapped this picture. I also sprinkled in some catnip so the scary new object might be made more enticing.

Although you can see the box quite easily if you're sitting on the ground, when a person stands in front of this bush the box is totally invisible.

At first I tried a different bush before deciding on the one above. The new bush had more room but the bush above is "Sherbet's" bush where I fed him all last winter. The video shows him approaching the box for the first time:


Then I moved it to Sherbet's usual bush but he was having none it. Oh well. I know if it's cold or rainy he will go in there. I couple of chilly mornings recently he even smelled like straw when I fed him breakfast, so I think he was using it. I love the little hiss he gives me at the end.


Stay warm and dry little bubsy. Love you.

Tippy And Chappu Hangin' Out Together

I think Tippy and Chappu got confused and did something sort of unusual - they snuggled together on the cat tree. Awwwwww, precious.

Rainbow, Teddy, Calvin, Layli, Obi

You will lose someone you can’t live without, and your heart will be badly broken, and the bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also the good news. They live forever in your broken heart that doesn’t seal back up. And you come through. It’s like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly—that still hurts when the weather gets cold, but you learn to dance with the limp.

~ Anne Lamott

Obus Obus, RIP

I am so sorry and sad to announce the passing of an incredible kitty. I'll blog about him some other time when I'm not so upset. He was so very special... one of a kind. We miss him so much already.

Obi-Wan Kenobi, a very handsome kitty with mittens for feet.