2015 reboot

Time to start writing again. Sad to notice my last post was about Chai. She was so amazing as a companion and pet. I probably hung on too long, finally making the final decision to put her to sleep not long after that post. I even regretted the decision, feeling the loss so excruciatingly. But after a few months, it hits that those feelings were all about me, not about her and her suffering. Bleck. And during the grief, I make stupid choices. I now have a hideous plaster cast of smoosh prints that are suppose to be her paws?!? What was I thinking?!!! Almost as bad and sappy as that Rainbow Bridge poem.

Cat Bed

.... otherwise know as that really expensive hand-knit sweater shrug thing I bought for myself this holiday season at Henri Bendel. Throw a million things on the bed and my cat will find the most expensive or new thing to take a nap on. At least she's got great taste!

Vet Visit

So Sunday evening I hear Chai coughing something up, or so I thought. All day Monday she is seemingly chewing at something in the back of her mouth. I get the toothbrush out to give her teeth a good once-over. Still nothing noticeable. All day she avoids drinking, eating, and even grooming. Can't find anything in her teeth or mouth. Perhaps she hurt her tongue? Robber band? She has a habit of turning anything into a chew toy. Finally I'm worried enough to take her to the vet. Wait around a half-hour due to some emergency before me that was more complicated than expected. Got her weighed. She lost a little weight but still just over 6 pounds. Everything else is good - healthy lungs, eyes, some tartar buildup and gingivitis but otherwise great. The vet gets the assistant to help hold Chai while opening her mouth and they see something deep in her throat, something we couldn't see just on first visual glance. They ask me if I want a look - no thanks; just get it out, please. They take some soft tongs and very quickly and easily take it out. Damn it! It's a gold snowflake tinsel thing I used to decorate my niece and nephews Christmas stockings. It's sort of folded on one side and a little frothy but clearly a gold snowflake. Crazy cat! Relief that it was that simple to fix. She's eating, drinking, and back to her bouncy self. Now I just need to make sure to clean up after myself.

Cat barf

Well, I don't have kids but I do have a cat. I'm not saying they're the same in terms of responsibilities but if they barf at 3 am and again at 5 am, it still needs cleaning. And soothing. Poor baby. It just doesn't sound good hearing those wretch noises just before the barf comes erupting out. The first heave at 3am gave enough warning that I could aim the regurgitation onto the wood floor. This wasn't a hairball; it was full course meal return. Ugh, the smell. Cleanup involved lots of paper towels (recycled post-consumer brand; sorry, just can't be so green to use a towel since that'll smell until the next day when I can get to the laundry room) and a wet towel mop. She had some watery heaves afterwards but the main entree was a lumpy version of dinner. I thought she felt a little warm but decided to see how she felt in the morning before figuring out if a vet visit was needed. Then at 5 am I woke to the heave sounds. Couldn't get her to the wood floor this time so the pure liquid bleck was all over the couch coverlet she uses for a bed. I quickly picked it up so it wouldn't soak through to the sofa but in the process of taking it to the kitchen sink, I accidentally was driping vomit across the living room floor. YUCK. More cleanup. More deodorizing. My poor baby. I sat up with her just petting her, trying to comfort her. Not sure what sort of bug she picked up. She eats pretty much the same food everyday. Perhaps she found some weird thing to eat someplace in the apartment. I think it's more of a bug. By morning she seemed OK but very lethargic. She was drinking her water very thirstily so I wasn't too worried about dehydration. So that was my night. I truly admire parents who manage this time 100. Not fun - the mess but more importantly, the worry. Bleck all around.

Damn That Cat!

Yeah, she looks all cute and adorable. That's just a survival tactic so I don't kill her when she does crazy things. Last night it was a splashy wake-up call at 3:30 am, literally. I keep a glass of water on my night stand next to my bed. Under cover of darkness, Chai's went to drink out of my glass, which is a big no-no and likely why she was doing so when I was sound asleep. Chai is a bit wobbly with her cone collar so when she tried to shove her now bulky head into my pint glass, she knocked the FULL glass over right onto my head and into my bed. Yikes! That woke me up really fast. Score one for kitty, zero for Mel. The water got on all 4 pillows (don't judge), both sheets, and my comfy puffy mattress cover. Argh! Yanked everything off and slept on the couch. Cute little booger but I really hope her boo-boo heals up soon so I can ditch the collar and hopefully get Chai back to her normal self - where her big night-time flaw was hogging the bed.

Pain in the A**

Chai is the world's best cat. I'm sure you're saying, "All parents say that about their pets." but in my case, it is true. Some of her more endearing qualities are her compact size, her no-meowing-unless-absolutely-necessary policy, and her bouncy disposition. 

Given her lovable, cuddly nature, I knew something was wrong on Tuesday when she'd hiss at me and spend inordinate amounts of time licking her bum. When I tried to get near her, she'd start her growl sounding a bit like a blender on low. She'd punctuate her threatening ice-choppy sound with a transition into a hiss, thinking she some sort of Cobra snake or something. I could see what she was licking which looked like a furless patch near her bum outlet. I had had enough of her attitude and I was worried to the point of action. I took action - which simply met I called the vet and decided to let them handle her.

Stage 1 involves getting her into the cat carrier. For a 5.5 pound cat, she can put one one heck of a fight, but luckily, again, no real howling, just fur and wriggling. Stage 2 is an easy walk to the vet's office 4 short blocks away, but the cold and ice/slush/snow streets made this a little more difficult. I wonder what she thinks of all the noises, smells and other strange 'feels' on the city street. I cover her carrier so she won't freak at all the activity and dogs walking about. 

Stage 3 is the vet check. She is so much nicer to them. They had no problem taking her temperature - she had a fever, poor girl - and looking at her wound. Turns out she had a walnut-sized abscess on her bum. Ick! They'd need to drain it, clean it and put her on antibiotics for the fever and to prevent infection. 

Now came the Worry Stage. The vet starts throwing out all these options. She's like to put Chai under for the procedure but she'd recently ate so we didn't want to risk any rock-star-death issues of her choking on regurgitation.  Then there were anti-inflammatory choices - talk about steroids and shots with possible kidney problem side effects. I was freakin'! I just wanted her healed without risk. Why is that never an option? I want choices where I know I could have no regrets about my decisions since nothing would go wrong. Instead I start panicking about "ifs" and "what-to-dos".  I decide to no go with the potentially kidney-harming stuff since she once had problems either with her kidneys or liver. So the vet takes her upstairs to the operating space. 

Now were into the Surgery-Crying Stage. I could hear Chai really screaming and loudly meowing upstairs. Since she is such a quiet kitty normally (my mother once commented that she thought she had no vocal cords; she didn't believe she could actually talk), I was on edge hearing my girl in such pain. Of course this made me cry 'cause there really wasn't anything I could do. Cries stopped after not too ling and I waited.

Going Home Stage. The vet brought Chai out in her carrier and she was not looking happy. I'm sure it was a painful procedure but she look even sadder to be stuck in a cone collar to prevent her from licking her wound. Got some pricey high-fiber cat food, antibiotics, and boo-boo cream to help the butt wound heal. Off we went back out onto the slip-n-slide streets and headed home.

Turns out the abscess was because of an infected and impacted anal duct gland. Did you know about this? I didn't even know cats had anal glands that needed looking after. I grew up with at least three cats in succession roaming our home and never did we worry about anal glands. Like any worried parent, I immediately Googled cat anal glands. Now I'm really grossed out.