Ad Astra

Renn is currently at the veterinary hospital. Nothing is untoward and I await the telephone call to bring him home, though that won’t be until later this afternoon.

For now, I can apprise you of Parker’s progress. I am still working to control his diabetes, though I think a major step forward has been taken this weekend. I conducted a ‘curve’ on the sturdy boy five weeks ago, and he did well. His number didn’t reach lower than twelve, but the doctor considered that to be very good, considering where he had been. It was also reflective of a stability in his insulin dosage. Then, the weekend before this one just past, I performed another ‘curve’, and Parker’s nadir didn’t reach even sixteen. This was disappointing.

I spoke to his doctor about raising Parker’s dosage, which neither of us want. We have been working to reduce it, and increasing it would be a motion backward. We considered as well switching the kind of insulin he is given. In any case, the doctor wanted me to run another ‘curve’ on my guest to make sure of the previous results.

Then, by chance, I noticed that, though he likes his current varieties of food, the orange boy doesn’t clean his dish, as he had the odd time I gave him Merrick brand chicken, the same sort the perma-cats receive. So I thought of giving him that instead. Though I was pretty sure Merrick is low in carbohydrates – Tucker, also diabetic, eats it – I researched further. I had been using a couple of charts that detailed the ingredients of various foods for diabetic cats, but very recently came across an extremely detailed chart compiled just this year – and, coincidentally, devised by a veterinary who had written some other information that the rescue-group with whom I work has used.

Parker’s two soft-foods were Koha chicken (and turkey, now and then) and Blue Freedom Grain-free. According to this new chart, the latter’s carbohydrate count is seven, just at the edge of what one wants to feed a diabetic feline. Koha, however, of which I thought better, was at eleven, and I had just started feeding it to Parker.

So prior to this weekend, I switched my foster-cat to Merrick chicken. I then conducted a ‘curve’ on him yesterday. The results showed marked improvement. Parker’s numbers dropped to twelve, even a few tenths of a point below the good results of five weeks before.

Though these are not conclusive, I suspect the change in diet was to blame for the unfortunate numbers a week ago. I of course do not want to switch any cat back and forth from one food to another. I want to keep them consistent, especially the diabetes boys. But I also want something that they enjoy. With two brands for variety – both very low in carbohydrates – and a third on stand-by in case he tires of one or another, I think I have achieved the stability that satisfies both Parker’s health and his palate. I will perform another ‘curve’ on him to make sure, but not for another month. I think his doctor will agree that the diet – its change and the timing of it – were the cause of the bad numbers.

This also means that Parker will be able to have a dental that he needs. We have been waiting for some consistency in his diabetes-treatment. After some disappointment, I believe the path ahead is now rather encouraging.

(By the way, you can probably see the sturdy-boy’s misaligned jaw in these pictures. He doesn’t need his mouth open to breath, but I think it opens when he lies like this. Who knows what happened to him before he was rescued, but his slightly crooked jaw and jutting chin don’t cause him pain – they just give him personality.)

A Big Day for the Big Boy

Renn goes to the veterinary hospital Monday morning. It is not serious – as much as surgery can fall into that category – but a more or less routine dental procedure. Like Cammie, Renn passed his earlier physical examination very highly, and it is expected that little needs to be done to my big boy. Even so, surgery is surgery, and I will be glad when I receive the telephone call telling me all is well.

English, for Animals

Most people who have pets talk to them. I think that is a true genralisation. Not everyone talks to them as if they were human, or could understand all that was being said to them, but most talk to them. I certainly do.

Moreover, I tell my cats things that they surely don’t understand. I tell them as I leave the apartment when I believe I will return. They don’t comprehend hours or minutes. They may know limited amounts, like the rabbits in Watership Down, who can count up to four; anything more than that is ‘many’ or, as rendered in the book, ‘a thousand’. My cats comprehend commands such as ‘get down’ and ‘no’; whether they obey them is irrelevant, at least to this topic.

Cats and dogs are able to learn a great many words and phrases, and sometimes we speak a certain way to make it easier for them, or so we think. An example of this in my household is the word ‘water’. All the beasts know it, and would know it if it were pronounced properly. For some reason, however, years ago, when I first met Tungsten, I started pronouncing it ‘wat-ter’, as if it were two words, with a stronger accent on neither part. Tungsten would of course have quickly caught on to the correct pronunciation, if she hadn’t known it already. But I called it ‘wat-ter’, and so it has remained. I fill bowls with ‘wat-ter’, I wash dishes in ‘wat-ter’ and I bathe in hot ‘wat-ter’.

The way we speak to our pets often becomes a part of our character. It is embarrassing therefore when we use the same phrases or words to humans as we do to animals. I usually catch myself before I ask if another person wants some ‘wat-ter’, but not always. I then pretend to have had a catch in the throat in the midst of the word. Sometimes, if it happens with another pet-owner, I explain and he or she nods. They understand ‘wat-ter’ as well as my cats do.

It may pay etymologists to create a field of their discipline devoted to the adaptation of English – and other languages – as applied to pets. It may be a dry, difficult study, though, so a prepared scholar will be ready to refresh himself with a tall, cool glass of ‘wat-ter’.

What I Did on My Summer Vacation

No, my holidays are not over yet; they are, in fact, just starting, thank goodness, and things are going well. I bicycled today to where I buy Tucker’s insulin. I am grateful that insulin is so easily made these days, and relatively cheap, that it may be purchased at the same location as one buys potato chips and dish-towels. Even so, it is a bit of a distance to ride, especially on a windy day. But there are sometimes compensations, aside from the inexpensive life-saving medicine.

I saw this deer – a mule deer, I believe, to judge from its ears and tail – calmly grazing at a site where ‘modular homes’ are displayed. The concrete path on which I was riding may be seen, to judge how close I was to the animal, and one photograph is included to demonstrate how near she was to the major north-south route. I think she is female, as there are no antlers starting that I could see; I am no zoologist (though I play one on tv), so I could easily be wrong. I think she may be very young, too. She was unperturbed by my presence and looked at the automobile traffic only when a large semi-trailer truck drove by.

The neighbourhood is semi-rural, and I have in fact seen deer right in the heart of the city; I published photographs a couple of years ago of several deer I saw dining in a churchyard on the town’s main street. But this is the closest I’ve been to one.

I hope she returned to her family safely, and lives a long life – at least long enough to make many more, just like her.

(Double-click on a picture to enlarge it.)

Biscuit City

Oh, the water is of emerald

And the beach is white as snow,

And everyone’s got money

And no place to go...

And the streets are all so quiet,

And the walls are squeaky clean.

I think you ain’t been nowhere

‘Til the town of Biscuit City you have seen.

“Biscuit City”

Written and sung by Gordon Lightfoot

There is no such place, of course. Though there may be locations that are as serene and happy, Biscuit City is a state of mind. It’s where there is peace and calm; trouble doesn’t exist there, indeed it cannot, and all is as it should be.

I will start my three weeks’ holiday at the end of work today. I will add to the blog during the days to come - cats, after all, take no time off from being worthy subjects of writing - but I will have more opportunity for the things I enjoy; more time, though it will move more swiftly. So I am off to my own Biscuit City for a while. I hope you will join me now and then.