Through the careful use of the scientific method and experimentation, I have discovered that cat fur must be a really good insulator:
I put snow on the cats (who were inexplicably unwilling to go out and play in it) and they just sort of sat there and acted like I was the crazy one. Typical!
So a few days ago Tiger started sneezing. A lot. Like, two-three-four sneezes in a row, intermittantly. I figured he’d get over it (and if it went on N days we’d go to the vet). And he did get over it just fine. He’s pretty much OK now, just the odd sneeze every once in a while…which can probably be attributed to the fact that I haven’t swept up the cat hair on the floor for a week or two.
But he apparently gave Kiyoshi his headcold before getting over it, because since Friday evening Kiyoshi’s been sneezing. And he’s just so miserable when he does it. He looks so pathetic. If there’s anything more sad than a tiny little grey cat who feels the burden of his own ridiculous cuteness by sneezing repeatedly, I don’t know what it could be.
so i am nearing the sort of burned-out state that comes with not having taken a real vacation in years– i’m all cranky and tired, and pretty much every bad thing that happens at work is another reason to claim that everything sucks. and, i mean, i know the solution is to take some time away from the computers. and i don’t even really mind spending money to do so. (well, i care, but i don’t /mind/, if that makes sense. not that i’m going all wild and crazy here, but i really want to take some time away and i am okay with spending some of my savings in pursuit of that.)
i don’t know what i’d want to do. i want to travel somewhere. i thought about going up to ontario or quebec. trains feature heavily in all my plans, and i thought about taking VIArail across canada from toronto to vancouver, then amtrak back. i thought about going way up to northern manitoba to see the northern lights. i thought about getting an amtrak pass and just riding around the country for a little while. i’ve thought about getting a eurail pass and just riding around europe for a little while. i’ve thought about renting a cottage in some village in scotland somewhere, and buying some local wool and borrowing a spinning wheel from someone and spending a week just sort of holed up blowing off the world and making yarn at the source. really, any of these things i am good with doing. there’s just one problem.
my cats.
i cannot figure out what to do with the furballs. i can’t ask a friend to catsit for two weeks, coming over twice daily to inject tiger with insulin. if i boarded them at my regular vet, that’s $35/night per cat — almost a grand for two weeks, before i even get on an airplane. a friend of mine has a vet he boards his cats at when he travels, which is ten bucks a night per cat (though that’s not necessarily their same price for a cat that needs medication), which is “only” like $300 for two weeks, but i hate the idea of leaving them trapped in tiny cages for two full weeks — they would feel so abandoned. a catsitter to come to my place? i don’t know that i could find someone — craigslist is full of dog-walkers, but that’s a little less skilled than cat medicators (especially since i would want someone to watch tiger for any signs of sluggishness or other symptoms).
but i can’t just take time off work and stay at home; i’m going completely fucking nuts for want of a change of scenery. it’s seriously been like 4 years since i’ve had vacation that was longer than a couple days and/or did not involve a dear family member’s death. i know i’ll need at least a week to unwind, and then i want at least a few days to really be on vacation, before i have to return to the slog. i just can’t figure out what to do about the cats. :(
today at petsmart, to buy a new kitty litter box (what? how else do you celebrate moving into a new apartment than with a shiny new kitty litter box?), i fell for the impulse buy: the plug-in feline anxiety pheromone calmer-downer thingie. the *$35* plug in feline calmer downer thingie. kiyoshi has been so upset lately, he won’t leave me alone, and he keeps jumping up on boxes and howling at me. he comes in to the computer room while i’m working and wails miserably until he gets my attention, then he runs away and comes back five minutes later and starts again. i didn’t really want to spend $35 (plus tax!) on something i honestly didn’t figure would make a difference, but on the other hand, cat is driving me nuts lately.
i went to petsmart right after work and came home to clean some stuff up before the Apartment Weenies came to do a showing (5 hours notice! — which was enough to get an OK from me to show the place; however, the guy who tried to give me 30 minutes notice at 3PM went away disappointed and, i think, not entirely prepared to be rejected since when i said “i’d prefer not until after 6″ he was silent for a good ten seconds before he recovered), and plugged it in then before leaving. when i got home later after meeting d. for dinner, both cats were utterly chilled out. kiyoshi hasn’t been in the computer room *once* in 20 minutes to howl at me. he hasn’t bothered me. he’s hanging out lying on the living room floor. tiger’s napping with his chin on my foot.
THIS MAGIC KITTY PHEROMONE CALMER-DOWNER THINGIE IS THE BEST THINGIE EVER, OMG. that $35 (plus tax) was so worth it! i love you, magic kitty tranq!
i’m completely booked all weekend — literally, i’m leaving the house at like 6:30 tomorrow morning and not getting home until late sunday. i’m only going out to the ‘burbs, but, i’m literally booked, so i’m staying in a hotel out there. so since i couldn’t take tiger with me, i had to take him to the vet’s to kennel him for the weekend. :( i feel terrible about it. i know, he’s getting much better care at the vet’s office than if he was here at home and i had to keep commuting back and forth twice a day, when his med schedule would be completely wacky because no doubt i’d be trapped at various obligations and then get stuck in traffic, but still, i felt so bad when he gave me his big sad eyes look as the vet tech was taking him away.
and now kiyoshi is wandering around the apartment meowing all the time.
i’m such a bad kitty mommy. :(
another day, another semi-panicked late night trip to the emergency vet.
thankfully: false alarm. i had thought that tiger was acting lethargic and less-than-ideally responsive (i.e., not looking up when i whistled or called his name), and i couldn’t get him to eat at all for 4 hours after he got his insulin (next time: FOOD FIRST, i don’t care if it is slow acting insulin), and i couldn’t draw enough blood to test his blood sugar (even after trying repeatedly, and wasting several test strips on insufficient amounts of blood), so i dropper-fed him some karo syrup (kitty delicacy, don’t you know) and then when that didn’t change his behavior any i kind of freaked out and called the emergency vet, who disbelievingly repeated back to me that i gave him insulin before food (it’s been two days that i’ve been doing this! cut me some slack, i don’t know the ropes yet!), then they said i had better rush him straight in in case he was in a diabetic crisis, so into the carrier he went and off we drove.
one thing about kitty diabetes: you get to the emergency vet’s office and say “hi, i called, i have a diabetic kitty?” and they don’t screw around; into an exam room you are swept, and into the exam room zooms the vet tech. whereupon your cat drools on the tech in a vaguely discontented “i hate the kitty carrier” way, but otherwise acts pretty normal (while you quietly freak out in the corner because omg they said “diabetic crisis” and i’m a bad kitty mommy!).
but the little rugrat was just faking me out; his blood sugar was 365 mg/dL. which, don’t get me wrong, that’s not really good — but it’s actually much improved from where he was when he was taking the glipizide (high 400s, at /best/.). and it’s nowhere near hypoglycemic. so, all things considered, he’s doing all right. he even passed the ketones test that we did on him, so all is well there as well.
but man, i could do with a week or so of no kitty drama. this constant fear for my cat’s health is getting a little exhausting.
Dear god what is on my head???
Originally uploaded by sldownard.
She put a sock on my head again. I don’t understand humans.
nothing like a call to the vet to inquire about a possible symptom your cat is exhibiting, resulting in a “you need to bring him in RIGHT NOW” and a zip home followed by mad cat snatching and a zip back downtown to the vet, where the cat is pronounced in good health (for a 16 year old diabetic cat who’s really a little cranky about all this getting stuffed in the kitty carrier and hauled off to the vet, lately), to really get your adrenaline going.
followed by when i got home, i pulled in to park in front of my house and my car got stuck, like a snowdrift, in the gravel pit the water department left us in place of asphalt lately. *facepalm*
next week, on As The Catbox Turns: insulin injections! (assuming his blood sugar doesn’t miraculously come down, uh, 350 mg/dL in the next few days.)
found this when walking in to the living room this morning: a cat napping using a bump of my new fiber for a pillow. obviously my failure to put it away last night paid off in cute photo opportunities — at least, until i accidentally woke him up:
and speaking of that fiber, it’s spinning up nicely, on the lovely new Louët:
but spinning more of it shall have to wait, as the post lady just rang my bell and brought me a little pressie from across the pond:
so the other day, Tiger started acting strangely. he was being normally social and everything, but he was drinking a lot of water — i mean, a LOT. sunday he drank probably between 2 and 3 cups of water — normal for a cat is 4 oz/day. yesterday while i was at work, he drank another couple of cups.
the unfortunate side effect of drinking a lot is … well, i’m sure you can guess. i have a bad habit of not picking up my dirty laundry and putting it in the hamper (i have one, i just don’t usually actually put stuff in it). … let’s just say i have to do some clothes shopping, now. and, although i hope it won’t be necessary, i’ve researched “cat playpens” to crate him in while i’m not around, if it comes to that. :(
anyways, yesterday since i was worried (it seemed strange for him to suddenly have decided he couldn’t get enough water — he actually woke me up monday morning at about 3AM howling, and wouldn’t stop until i turned on the bathtub tap for him to drink — and since i sat there waiting to turn it back off again, i saw that he drank and drank and drank and drank and drank), i called my vet, and they recommended that i bring him in. so i did, at 8 this morning.
i think i was actually more stressed out than the cat.
anyways, long story short, it turns out that Tiger has developed feline diabetes. it’s apparently relatively common in elderly male cats. and hey, the #1 symptom of its onset is drinking and peeing absurd amounts! apparently what happens is when their blood sugar gets high, their kidneys try to wash it out, so they’re constantly flushing water through their system.
i came home from the vet with a whole bucketload of worry, antibiotics, a prescription for some sort of medicine which i have to get from a people pharmacy, and a bag of prescription food. poor kitty has to go on a diet — 3/4 c. of food daily! i can foresee the kitty drama already, since i’m going to have to feed kiyoshi separately. i bet you ten bucks i’m going to get woken up early every day the rest of this week by an angry cat who wants his kibble and wants it now, goddammit. and i can tell you right now that the multiple pills a day are going to go over well. if i show up to work with a black eye tomorrow, it’s only because my cat smacked me…
it sounds like it’s a manageable condition, even if it does progress to the point where i have to give him insulin injections (and i thought pills were bad). i just worry about him a little, because he’s 16 years old, which is pretty old for a kitty, even a spoiled rotten indoor fluffball who’s never gone hungry (or unpetted) a day in his life. think of it this way, Tiger: you’re about to get a whole lot more attention!
muy rain and wind and generally unpleasant weather == no baseball for niqui tonight after all.
i can has burgerlet however: 
hooray! cheezburger for everybody!
guess what i am messing around with at work today? NO, NOT PHOTOSHOP!
(inspired by I Can Has Cheezburger?, among others, and IM with b. BTW, if you have no idea WTF a lolcat is, see here. You non-lolcat-knowing loser.)
