Friday, April 24, 2020

When the Problem is the Solution

Raleigh does have his troubles. This morning, I could tell he wasn’t feeling good again. He didn’t want any breakfast, which, while in keeping with some days over the past couple of weeks, has not been the case the last few days. But I also noticed that he visited the litter-boxes five times while I was feeding the others. I looked in the boxes, and there were two tiny poops. Raleigh was constipated.

No wonder he hadn’t felt like eating. I had visions of, first, forcing his Prednisolone into him, then forcing hair-ball remedy into him, as a lubricant, until I could buy something more fitting. Then, about half an hour later, I noticed him cleaning himself. I thought he was feeling a bit sore back there and was trying to ease the discomfort. But as I approached, I smelled something. Sure enough, Raleigh had deposited the biggest crap I’d ever seen him deposit, right in a cosy corner of my sitting room.

Normally, this would, of course, be a problem. But I couldn’t be angry at him. If he went, he went; that was the important thing. Where it came out was unimportant, really. Secondly, he probably felt the urge and wasn’t about to deny it, after not being able to do anything about for who knows how long. So I cleaned it up, washed the carpet and fed Raleigh. He ate; not a big amount, but enough to stop his tummy from growling, and enough to consume his medicine, too. I was greatly relieved. I imagine he was, too.

I’m sure that wasn’t what has been troubling Peachy lately, as he has pooped more or less regularly over the last week. Nonetheless, I am pleased that he didn’t have this adding to his troubles for long. While I would have preferred him to have made it back to the litter-boxes in time and not do what needed doing on my sitting room carpet, in this case, the problem was a solution.

15 comments:

  1. Poor Raleigh! (And poor Dad having to do clean-up duty!) But as you said, the important thing is that at least one problem was solved and hopefully Raleigh is now feeling much better.

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  2. Poor guy, but when ya gotta go ya gotta go.

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  3. Poor Raleigh, but I am sure he feels so much better for it.

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  4. Let's hope this cheers the guy up! Nothing worse (almost) than being constipated. You are such a good cat-dad!

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  5. I can’t help but note that Renn is giving him that “I know what you did” look.

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  6. Poor fella, we hope he feels better now and gets some rest.

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  7. It's a sign of love for certain when you look at what happened regarding Peach as you did. I would have as well, had that happened here. And have, when it was Admiral's misfortune occasionally as she got old. Raleigh knows where to go...I think it was not truly within his control.

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  8. There is a time when sometimes a cat loses the "understanding of the litterbox in elder years or during medical issues.

    Well, better pooping than peeing... It is a lot easier to clean up.

    Skeeter randomly peed for 4 months. Iza peed on the linoleum floor for 2 weeks. I loved them both dearly, but 2 weeks is better than 4 months.

    This is just an afterthought as I miss them both equally.

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    1. I'm not worried about Raleigh; that was just a single incident due to his constipation. I have another - either Tucker or Josie - who is wetting just in front of the litter-boxes. It's on linoleum and is inconvenient, but not terribly. Each one's personality is different, each has his flaws, but we forgive them, as they forgive us ours.

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  9. That's the thing about how we love our pets. Clean up and move on.
    The cat always knows best, so Raleigh is now "relieved" and so are you.
    After all, what is one more chore in the life of a human, right? We seldom get tired.
    Hope the rest of the weekend is clean.

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  10. Raleigh's poop for the ages!
    (Sweetie left a monster crap in the litter box this morning...for such a wee kitty, that was a HUGE thing, but I'm glad 'cause I was concerned that the antibiotics she's taking would back her system up.)

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  11. Poor Raleigh, I'm glad he got some relief. Sigh, the clean up couldn't have been pleasant though.

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  12. When our Elder Buddy would get a bit backed up he would slow down with eating and then resume a few days post pass. Hope Raleigh feels better soon

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