Tucker's Latest Victory

Tucker’s break-through came Friday evening. Since his surgery, he has been sustained by small amounts of soft-food. He had never been a big eater of tinned nutrition and, during the period of his teeth’s decreasing health, consumed less and less of it. Since his operation, he has wanted to eat hard-food.

He had eaten some. The diabetic hard-food that neither he nor Parker liked very much had an initial appeal to the roly poly one. Then, when that palled, he was willing to try some Z/D. His desire for that too failed after a few days. He kept going to where the Orijen hard-food bowl is placed, and I would set the bowl down. He would want to eat but could not bring himself to do so. He had attempted it too soon after his surgery, and had hurt his mouth.

Then, Friday, I put the bowl in its place and Tucker ate a few kernels. This was his test. Would they cause him pain as before? They did not. He ate more. Since then, he has been eating the Orijen hard-food, as well as his usual small portions of soft-food. He doesn’t eat many kernels at once, but when I am home, and can watch who eats from it, I keep the bowl on the floor, and Tucker nibbles from it on a continual basis. Now, I hope he will stop losing weight.

His recovery is manifesting itself in other ways. When we play with a string-toy, and he catches the end of it, he brings it to his mouth. He used to hold it there, but no longer does. Even so, his mouth has healed enough for him to use it in play. As well, we have a little game whereby my hand will attack him. He grabs a finger in his paws and brings it to his mouth. Previously, he would pretend to bite me, though he wouldn’t even close his jaws on my digit. Now, he does something similar but my finger just touches his gums. Again, he feels comfortable enough to use his mouth for playing.

This is a victory for my little sausage-cat. It is all his. It has nothing to do with the veterinarian, or the drugs given him, and certainly nothing to do with me. Tucker summoned his courage and kept trying with the hard-food. Eventually, he found that the pain had dulled, and then vanished. He isn’t as sure when eating food as he was, but he will learn new techniques. A veterinary technician told me that Tucker would never eat hard-food again. I know of other toothless cats who do, and was confident that Tucker would. He just needed time to fight his way through his fear.

He has a ways to go yet, but the enemy is retreating; Tucker has won his latest battle.