Rumbles from the Interior

When I have time off, two things usually happen: a cat becomes ill and I get a new cat. Renn thought he would keep the former tradition going.

After Josie’s trouble last week, Renn began exhibiting signs of unusual behaviour. He stopped eating and drinking, became lethargic and lie much of the time facing the back of a chair or couch. He also vomited several times and had liquidy stools. My big boy showed some improvement over the weekend, but by Monday, I realised that he was not getting better. I took him to the veterinary hospital that day.

Though the results for his blood and urine tests have yet to be reported, the doctor thinks Renn was experiencing an intestinal infection, a bug disturbing his digestion. Some Cerenia was given to settle his stomach, probiotic to add to his food, and some medicine to counter-act the fluidity of his stools.

So far, Renn appears to be responding well to the medicine. He has eaten – rather a decent amount, actually - and drunk water. His manner is much more like his old self. I gave him one dose of the drug meant to solidify his waste: it did not go down well. Injected in liquid form, it was spat out, thrown off by shakes of the head and burbled out in bubbles. I suspect very little of it saw the inside of Renn’s intestines. Worse, after eating well upon his return from the hospital (due, likely, to hunger and a newly calmed stomach), the horrible medicine put him off his food for the rest of the day. He fortunately tucked into breakfast this morning. I won’t be giving him the rest of that medicine unless absolutely necessary.

Bodily speaking, things have been strange in the Cosy Apartment. Josie had her problem – and now will have nothing to do with any variety of soft-food, existing only on Z/D hard-food. Then Renn had his - and is eating more soft-food than he has in a very long time. And on Sunday, I had terrible stomach cramps which had me lying down most of the morning, even though horizontality did not really bring more relief than verticality. The pains departed as abruptly as they arrived. I could not think of anything that I had eaten that I had not already sampled without harm – though a bad egg may have been next to a good one, and a tainted piece of chicken cooked with a beneficial portion.

In any case, I am recovered, Renn is doing well (paws crossed) and Josie, except for the self-imposition of a limited diet, is back to her old ways. It’s when things start returning to normal that all changes. I will write about that tomorrow…

Better Late Than Never

At the end of work today, I begin my holidays. They won’t be as long as usual - two weeks instead of three - but I consider myself lucky to have the time off; indeed, this year, I consider myself luckier than usual just still to have a job. But I have been looking forward to holidays since - well, since my last holidays ended…

They are later than normal in coming, too. This is partly due to the fact that a couple of people in my department at work have been off on extended leave due to health issues unrelated to covid-19. And others have been off for two weeks and more due to corona virus fears. All turned out well. It meant, though, that the person who wasn’t sick or incapacitated somehow had to stay. As usual, the reward for diligence and constant attendance is extra work.

Now, however, I will have some time off. There is plenty to do at the apartment, much to clean and mend. But time in Idylland also means relaxation, extra sleep and enjoyment of things I want to do, rather than must do. I won’t be going anywhere, yet I will enjoy the beautiful surroundings afforded by the woods of Verdureland, and spend time doing nothing among trees and streams.

I will continue to write on this blog while I am away; adventures of cats - and with cats - don’t end at the frontiers of Idylland. After all, the beasts will be coming with me: railways in Idylland allow pets to travel for free…

Renn, Up and Down, In and Out

Renn is making news at the Cosy Apartment this week.

Firstly, he joined Josie and Tucker in the explorers’ club. He, like they, decided to see what was beyond the apartment’s front door. The interesting thing about my big boy and his curiosity is that he is less ambulatory than the other two. He will stay more in one spot, and be satisfied to examine his surroundings from there. He uses that large nose of his extensively. The other cats certainly sniff their way about a new environment, but Renn appears to rely on it more. I have long been convinced that he either is able to take in more with his prominent proboscis than others can, or he simply prefers its findings.

He did move about, but he remained rooted to a few spots over a long period of time; the slightest noise from the far end of the corridor caused him to be wary - and content with staying put. Despite his size, Renn is not overly courageous.

Secondly, and more seriously, he was under the weather yesterday. He didn’t eat, or drink, the whole day, so far as I can determine. He eats very little soft-food as it is, but he was uninterested in hard-food, or even water. He lie in one place in the library, and I could tell he was out of sorts, aside from his appetite.

I am pleased to write that this morning, he seemed more his old self. In fact, he ate more than his wont at breakfast; probably hungry from yesterday’s fast. I hope it all stayed down while I’ve been at work - I am pretty sure it will - and that some of that hunger will continue for dinner tonight. It’s always worrisome when one of the beasts doesn’t eat, and I try to be vigilant, especially coming off Josie’s recent scare.

But I am confident my big boy will be well, and maybe this weekend, even indulge in a little more exploration.

Table for Three, Please

While Josie continues her recovery on the inside, I receive more visitors on the outside.

The two long-haired black and white cats are familiar to me and, fortunately, are not unsocialised, unfixed or unattended by humans. Though they are outsider-cats, without a family home, they visit a neighbour of mine regularly, are fed by him, and allow him to pet them. They were frightened of me, but then, this is the first time they have come so close to my apartment. I suspect they did it only because Jessel was unfazed by my proximity.

I was surprised, however, that he knew the two girlcats – who have names, though they escaped me at the moment – and that they were friends. When I brought food out for the trio, the girls hurried away. Jessel followed, paused and glanced back when I tapped the ceramic food-bowl, but then continued after the girls when he saw that they were not stopping. He did come back later for dinner.

There is always something going on in the society of cats. Now and then, I’m lucky enough to witness it.

Thinner Woods

I want to thank all those who expressed a concern over Josie after reading of her latest journey to the veterinary hospital. I am pleased to report that everyone’s kind thoughts have helped turn her around.

My Chubs spent a quiet night, and this morning, ate a little food, and drank some water. I gave her some of the prescribed pain-killers, as I wouldn’t be home to observe her during the day, and some of her anti-biotic.

When I came home after work, there had been a greater improvement. Josie was glad to see me, purring and rubbing up against furniture. She wanted attention and I gave her some before preparing dinner. Again, she ate, more than in the morning, but only aided with a garnish on her food of Temptation treats; she appeared more ready for food than willing to eat it. Nonetheless, she ate. She even played, a few hours later.

Though she has not moved much from her location on the base of the bedroom cat-tree, the Great White doesn’t appear to be suffering any discomfort. I will finish the small supply of pain-killers I was provided, as I don’t want even residual pain to distract her from eating, drinking or visiting the litter-box. (On that last subject, there was a sizeable urine-ball in one of the boxes, at the spot that is usually the recipient of her efforts. I cannot, however, determine for certain that Josie caused it. I will be watching and listening for any visit she makes to the facilities.)

I hesitate to declare that we are out of the woods yet, but the trees are definitely growing more thinly. I don’t believe Josie is feeling any discomfort at all. I think that what she was – and still is – experiencing is another urinary tract infection, worse than the previous. She is, I further think, recovering from this one, but will receive the full amount of prescribed anti-biotics. I never feel merciful toward organisms that cause my cats to suffer, so I want the bacteria annihilated.

If, though, Josie continues to improve as she has so far, she will be feeling much better tomorrow. I hope her appetite returns, and her waste disposal becomes regular once more. With luck, vigilance and proper health care, my old lady will become older yet.

It Must Be Sunday: I'm at the Vet's

Another weekend, another health crisis… Josie had to make an unscheduled trip to the hospital today.

Early this morning, my Chubs was fine. She ate breakfast, she demanded her treats, she drank water. Then, about mid-day, I saw her wetting on my bed. She had never done that before. While I was taking the bedclothes to the laundry, she threw up. I know it was her because of the contents that had been discharged, and the fact that it was in the bathroom; only Josie tries to get to the bathroom if she has to vomit.

Things grew worse as she started going to the litter-box but not leaving anything in the litter but her pawprints, though she had probably emptied what remained in her bladder on my bed, for a second time. She was crying by this time, obviously in distress, if not pain. She eventually just lie down in the litter-box.

I called the hospital and arranged for an emergency visit. The doctor examined my old lady and found that her bladder was indeed empty, so whatever was causing her to think she had to urinate was not urine. There was nothing that would indicate a mass or intrusion, and she was not constipated. If it were not for the vomiting, the doctor would have suspected a urinary tract infection, like the one Josie suffered two months ago. I know the Great White throws up more often than my other cats, and this morning may simply have been coincidental, exacerbated by whatever else she was feeling.

She was given an injection of Cerenia nonetheless, but also some anti-inflammatory drug. I was provided with a vial of anti-biotic, for I believed by this time that Josie was facing not an extraordinary internal situation (that is, cancer, which is always a fear of mine) but a simpler but still dangerous infection.

For two hours after her return home, she rested quietly, even sleeping; I could hear her snoring. Then she woke and started crying again, and once more attempted to wet in the litter-box without success. I called her doctor and was able to obtain some pain-killers for Josie, which I should have done during the first visit. My old girl is resting tranquilly once more. I will see what the night brings.

There are several possibilities in my mind. One, the best and, I hope, the likeliest, is that she is fighting an infection but, until it vanishes completely, is making her uncomfortable, even causing her pain. This scenario suggests that the pain will disappear with the infection. She may have a kidney-stone, or something stuck in her bowels. I don’t know the symptoms of these ailments – other than that the kidney-stone causes agony; I know this from personal experience. In any case, I will ask about these possibilities tomorrow, when I call the animal hospital.

I intend to reduce the amount of joint-medicine she has been receiving. I will also give her less frequently the mild laxative she has been getting. I don’t want to give her too much of too many medicines.  They will be eliminated all together until her current anti-biotic doses are done.

The doctor told me that Josie is in very good shape for her age, aside from today’s problem; weight, temperature, heart and lungs are all good. It may be, after all, that my Chubs is dealing with something very unusual but, hopefully, treatable. We will see what tomorrow brings.

The Beach of His Youth

I’ve written about Josie growing old, but age is overtaking my other cats just as much. They are all into their elderly years, except for Neville, who is middle-aged. (The situation reminds me of the film Space Cowboys, in which Clint Eastwood, Donald Sutherland and James Garner play seniors re-entering the space programme, with Tommy Lee Jones as the youngster…)

Tucker is not the chubby baby he used to be, and I worry about him sometimes. But now and then, he does something that reminds me of his youth. I was thinking just the other day that he has not stretched out in his ‘bathing beauty’ pose for some time, and I attributed it to  the regrettable loss of elasticity that accompanies the gathering years.

Imagine my delight then, when I saw him lying like this last night. All he needs is a brightly coloured beach towel under him and he could be reclining on the seashore in Idylland, catching the balmy August breezes off the bay.

While my lot may be moving a little more slowly compared to yesteryear, their appetites less and their naps longer, they are, in some ways yet, still the cats of their youth, and still like to relax on a beach in the warmth of their summer’s afternoon.