Out of the Frying Pan...

My Siamese princess isn’t getting a break these days. Her ordeal with a hairball is done, but now she is suffering a cold.

The hairball is, I believe, defeated. There are no positive signs of its conquest but, as with Josie’s similar condition some time ago, it’s what I don’t see or find that persuades me that she is finished with it. Cammie hasn’t thrown up for days and her appetite is better.

But now, she has a cold. Her eyes are leaking and her nose is clogged. She periodically relieves this by shaking her head. She also sneezes. At first, watching her shake her head, I thought there may be an itch in her ears, an infection, perhaps. But she hasn’t scratched her ears, her head or anything else. She is just trying to clear her nostrils.

I think there may be something in her system that comes to the fore when she is stressed. She had what was reportedly a cold when she was in Regina - and that situation must have been the most stressful she’s been in for years. The hairball probably created some ill feelings emotionally, which was undoubtedly exacerbated by my necessarily forcing hairball remedy into her. So now the Camster looks sadder than ever.

I can usually tell when she feels poorly because she retreats to her cylinder-house downstairs. I would like to bring that cat-tree upstairs to the ground floor because the basement is much cooler than elsewhere, but part of its appeal to her is likely its isolation.

And Cammie does come upstairs, even in her misery, benefitting from the warmed cat-bed in the sitting room. And she makes time to lie on my lap at least once a day, and still purrs at the attention I give her, now and then spewing snot over me. Nonetheless, I am confident that though what she is experiencing may be making her feel badly, it is not serious.

Even better than continued lap-time is Cammie’s continued appetite. It’s less than I’d like, but she is still eating. She consumes a little at the usual meal-times, but I give her some soft-food whenever she sits on the food mat. I see that she is eating some hard-food, as well: she throws about debris from the bowl whenever she chooses kernels from it.

As long as my princess is getting nutrition, and is spirited enough for some affection, I’m not very worried about her. But I think she’s had enough bad luck recently. And the other cats are complaining that a certain Siamese royal is hogging the blog.