Making a Deposit

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Good Friday. Here, despite the promise of renewal that is implied in the Easter season, the weather is still wintry: overcast, just below freezing, and ice pellets, alternating with light snow.

However, there is better news inside. Since his return from the hospital, Brazil has been eating well. He has not continued to consume food as if ravenous, but he is eating. I offered him some Merrick chicken from a tin, when his enthusiasm for Fancy Feast faltered, and he is liking that; he has had it before, and I will move his offerings about when needed.

But he had not deposited any solid waste in a litter-box since that hospital visit. As it may have been a day or so prior to that when he had left something in the litter, it was a cause for worry, especially since the veterinary had seen, via an x-ray, an amount of poop awaiting its chance to appear.

Each night, Brazil has been locked in the library, so I would know that it was his product in the box come the morning; I did the same when I went to work. A telephone call from the hospital to check up on Shimmer led to the doctor’s declaration that Brazil should come in again on Monday, if nothing was forthcoming. Considering his reaction to this last visit, I wanted to avoid that, if possible.

Yesterday, I gave the reluctant crapper a dose of hairball medicine, in the hopes of coaxing the reluctant interior to give up its loot. That seemed to do what was needed, and a decent amount of poop was awaiting discovery in the litter-box this morning. It was flattened, so I suspect that it was softened due to the hairball medicine. I will give Brazil another dose of it today.

That in itself is a bit of good news, too. Like catching Brazil for incarceration in a carrier, capturing him for the hairball medicine was easy. He allowed me to inject the substance by syringe into his mouth, and did not resist. Afterward, he didn’t run or hide. This is quite a change even from the last time I had to give him something by mouth. It bodes well for future necessities, if providing medication.