What Fun
Ringo went into a postpartum cat fit that included scaling my right arm. Fortunately the keyboard wasn’t damaged by the blood, but I had to wash the mouse and mouse pad.
Dot has been depressed and I was ready to haul her to the vet, but after purging hairballs all over the house, and getting her own personal plate for dinner, she is back to her old cheerful self, cuffing her brother and Ringo. She is not fond of the kittens, which is good, because she ignores them which Ringo prefers.
Sox, on the other hand, would really, really love to play with the kittens. This means he is getting cuffed by his sister and Ringo on a fairly regular basis.
The kittens have their eyes fully open and are sort of mobile – about .18 on a Breathalyzer, not a chance of walking a straight line. They try to avoid their mom except when they’re hungry because staggering to within her reach means “THE TONGUE.”
I had to take my Mother out to a meeting tonight because she didn’t want to drive at night…through the smoke…of the wildfires that have burning all day on the edge of the Hurlburt Field property. The woman she was going to ride with canceled to prepare to evacuate her home. Nothing like the fires in Georgia or over in Central Florida, but annoying enough. Sirens all day and the low flying aircraft are only mildly annoying and the smoke hasn’t been that bad.
Back to the grind.
16 comments
Fun, indeed! I guess those hairballs create a nasty pain for the cat and the cat caretaker. It’s yucky having to clean them up, but if the cat feels better, it not such a bad thing.
I never think about the smoke that comes off the wildfires. Yeesh. I can understand why your mom wouldn’t want to drive through taat. It’s good that you could take her to her meeting.
Actually it was a carfull as other ladies were uncomfortable driving in the conditions. It’s a mess.
It’s better to clean the hairballs up than to step on them barefooted.
Stay safe, Bryan, from fires and cats alike.
Stella’s about to visit family in Georgia for a few days, and I’m (body-part) deep in computers and equipment and software, but at least I don’t have fires threatening the neighborhood. Stella’s cats may climb my arm when she goes tomorrow, though; they don’t like it when she leaves town and they’re stuck with just me. Actually, we get along pretty well. But they may climb my arm anyway. Hey, it happens.
Yowza, Bryan …what is going on at yer House? Sprinkling *Go Crazeeeeee* powder in the meals ya serving there? Or is just an unusual bout of Spring Fever Virus?
But Kitties do have those *claw their way to the Top* moments. OUCH…and hope ya put some nice disinfectant or anti-bacterials on them scratches.
🙂 Karen
I hope the smoke isn’t causing your Mother or her honchos (or you) any health problems. In the meantime, I see the Florida National Guard will be helping Georgia.
That’s the way it should be – helping neighboring states, not occupying other countries.
Steve, I hope Stella’s people are safe, as Georgia is in worse shape than the Panhandle when it comes to wild fires. You can see the smoke on the satellite pictures on the weather sites.
Boric acid isn’t just for cockroaches, Karen. The kittens have disturbed the flow in the house. It would be better for all concerned if Ringo would let me move them into the bathroom, but that hasn’t worked out – I move them and she moves them back.
The joys of air conditioning and HEPA filters, Andante. Mother was already filtering for the annual pollen attack.
We don’t need to use the Guard over here because the Base is involved, so the Air Force is supplying manpower for our problem. We’ve also had more rain than the people to the East, so things don’t take off like they did in Georgia and Central Florida.
Bryan, I’m more concerned for your and your mother’s safety. Stella’s people live in a small community about 20mi WSW of Atlanta. You’re a lot closer to the fires than they are, and I gather the winds are pushing them in your general direction rather than theirs (correct me if I’m wrong). Stay safe… and remind Ringo that you are not a scratching post.
Steve, the fires in Okaloosa County have been contained but are still smoldering, but they have bigger problem in the county just east of us, Walton, so we are getting a bit strung out.
OH, TS Andrea has just appeared.
it’s a requirement here: all hairballs can only be picked up after a barefoot human has stepped on them. the human considers this to be a huge improvement over the original situation: all the hairballs being deposited on the sofa or in the bed.
mineral oil is the answer to your cats’ hairball problems. decades ago a vet explained to me that vegetable oil soaks into the cat’s intestine, causing the hair to stick to the intestinal wall rather than exiting greasily out stage left, however mineral oil, which is not a laxative but a lubricant, does the trick. no loose stool, big reduction in the poor cats vomiting.
i’m jealous you get to have a litter of kittens. i have two adult black-and-white cats to go along with my two aging cocker spaniels. they’re fun but nothing beats a box full of kittens!
Given that Dot and Sox tend to be “drama queens” when it comes to hairballs, I can usually clean them up immediately. As a korat, Ringo only has a single coat and doesn’t really have a hairball problem.
The catfood industry owes me refunds, because they said the stuff I bought last was a hairball cure, and it didn’t work.
Karen Marie, my vet says that trying to get Dot to take anything she doesn’t want to take without knocking her out is good for a bloodletting. She is currently laying in my lap an purring mightily, but trying to give her medicine, or even applying the anti-flea stuff between her shoulder blades requires a Levi’s jacket and leather gloves. [She was a really cute kitten.]
My vet has appeared on Animal Planet removing an arrow from a goose, and does the neutering of the feral cats, as well as most of the wild animal work in the area, so he’s not timid, but he knows Dot.
The kittens heard me writing about them and came out from under the computer desk to cause trouble. They are “boneless” and squeeze into the narrowest of spaces. The are now being subjected to “THE TONGUE”.
that anti-hairball food never worked for me either. or for the cats.
if you want to try the mineral oil trick with dot, you can put a dab of vaseline on your finger and then quick! while she’s not looking! wipe it off onto the cat. aiming for the face [somewhere near the mouth] or a paw usually means that more of the vaseline gets ingested [when the cat licks it off]. other places on the cat, and the cat is likely to try to wipe the stuff off onto the furniture [ask me how i know this].
i think i read somewhere that vaseline and mineral oil, both being oils that are not absorbed by the cat’s innards, can rob the cat of fat-soluble vitamins, so you wouldn’t want to use it more than once or twice a week, and only during the worst of shedding season.
my pets seem to be stealth kings. i wake up in the morning to find stuff re-arranged, and come home in the afternoon to find more stuff re-arranged.
Actually I’ve increased the combing, which is easier. She’s been shedding more because she’s annoyed by the kitten’s. She’ll just have to get used to it, as they will have to understand that she is the alpha.
combing is the best solution, by far. my cat loves to be combed, it’s a drug for him. he comes running at the sound of a brush the way normal cats come running at the sound of the electric can opener. the dog, on the other hand, seems to think that evil poltergeists are pulling all his fur out.
Usually Dot will jump up on the wrist rest at some point during the day, and I can take care of it with a flea comb. The flea comb also alerts me to any problems as she shouldn’t have fleas considering the cost of Revolution.
She likes being combed, but types horrible nonsense on the computer and usually ends the session by laying down on the keyboard.