Category: Critters

Animals that hang around.

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Critter Update

Rob

The critters are all doing fine.  Mozi the lizard is asleep for the winter.  Murzik is either playing or sleeping.  Powder, well, he's still been itchy, although we've seen a bit of improvement.  He's been getting into some trouble.  There's some pictures of him getting his face dirty.  The other day he chewed on my brand new spider plants.  He still opens cabinet doors.  He's being his usual self. 
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Powder in the hospital

Rob

Powder is in the hospital. We took him in to the vet back in March 2nd or so. The reason was because he was licking his fur off. A few days later, he started peeing around the house. Just a few drops here and there. We took him back in and got a bunch of medication. He seemed to do better. then he started having problems again. We took him in and this time got an x-ray. Turned out he was backed up with poop. He got some kitty laxitive medicine and we continued the pill pushing (3 pills a day).

On Sunday, March 19th and in the evening, he had attempted to use the litter box and appeared upset and growled at me when I approached. This is right. He was grumpy for a little bit and we got him some medicine.

Monday evening he was back to peeing around the house. Usually not much – maybe a drop or two of urine. Then I caught him on the couch and he really went to town and peed on Olessia’s wedding magazines and all the cat toys that were up there.

Tuesday he seemed ok.

Wednesday, he’s peeing around the house. Constantly. Nothing is coming out though. I called the vet a little after 9am and was a bit frustrated. The medicine we’ve been giving him for 2+ weeks wasn’t working. They said he had to go in immediately. I argued a bit because I wanted to talk to the doctor, not the nurse. The doctor called back and recommended an emergency vet and told me I had to take him in immediately. So, I left work and took Powder in. They did a quick exam on him and found he was blocked. They were going to need to do a lot of work to get him unblocked (I’ll spare the details). He had crystals blocking his plumbing.

They cleared the blockage on Wednesday. Thursday he seemed to be doing ok. He pulled out his catheter on Thursday morning. He was peeing ok on Thursday. Friday, he was straining. They gave him some medicine to relax the muscles so he could pee easier. By the afternoon, he was still having problems so they reinserted the catheter. He hadn’t been eating very much since he had been there. This was starting to cause concern for our doctor.

Saturday (this morning), the catheter had stayed in and Powder was doing pretty good. He had eaten some food and was being overly friendly. The doctor finally had a chance to give him a proper exam since the previous days he had been growling and putting up a fight. Turns out the doctor found he has a heart murmur. We don’t know yet how serious it is.

We got to visit him today. Boy he was all about the cuddles and purring. After a good while of cuddles, he slowly went to sleep. He looked comfy. They had him in a thick blanket.

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Cats on the loose!

Rob

Ack!

Olessia calls me from upstairs – the cats got outside!

I come up and here, the sliding door is half open and both cats are milling around outside. Now its past 8pm and its dark already. We both go outside. Murzik doesn’t know what to do and is happily waltzing around outside. She’s sniffing the air and the grass. Powder, he’s busy sniffing too, but he sees me walking his way and he knows I’m out to end his fun. He bolts off towards the back of the yard. I tried to get him between me and the house. My fear was he’d jump the short fence we have or find a rabbit hole under the fence. He ended up bolting for the house and I freaked because we leave our side gate open. I called out to Olessia to watch for Powder because he was coming her way and to close the gate (Olessia almost had scooped up Murzik). She ran for the gate and he saw that and stopped before the house. Now he was a little confused as to what was going on. He ended up cautiously walking to the middle of the yard and I followed. On my way to Powder, I was able to scoop up Murzik. I wasn’t too worried about her. Murzik isn’t as street smart as Powder is. When I scooped up Murzik, Powder saw that and he was freaked out. His tail was poofed up and his back was arched with all his back hair sticking up. I was able to scoop him up as well and return the two to the house. I have no idea how the patio door got opened. I may have left it open because I was grilling. Or maybe I had left it a crack open and they managed to get it opened further, but for some reason I doubt that. the doors aren’t easy to open. Hmm… Well, they’re safe and back in the house.
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Powder: Looking for trouble

Rob

This cat is WAY too smart (and WAY too good at finding trouble).

He has a taste for chocolate. He can SMELL an open chocolate box or container from a good several feet (the distance from the top of a table or counter to the floor plus a foot or two). He’ll look around and check if the coast is clear. If its not, he’ll quickly sit down and look innocent by like licking himself or look out the window. Then, when he thinks its clear, he goes for the chocolate. He’s really quiet about it so its taken us a while to figure out how he does this. Even though he’s neutered, he has balls enough to jump up on the table when we’re in another room or we’re reading AT THE TABLE!

So Saturday Olessia brings home 2 boxes of chocolate. One is in a plastic container and is chocolate covered almonds. The other is in a thin cardboard heart-shaped Valentine and it has all sorts of assorted chocolates. The almonds are sitting in the center of the table, with the lid closed. The cat managed to knock the almonds off the table and onto the floor. More importantly, he did this as we were falling asleep. No, not any earlier because we’d actually get out of bed. He waited long enough for us to grumble, “what was that noise?” and then go back to bed. Sunday morning Olessia was up first and discovers the plastic container was slightly chewed on, upside down on the floor and a couple covered almonds shuffled around on the floor (clearly, one or both cats had at least played with them). Lucky for us, not all of the almonds were lost.

Sunday afternoon, Powder had to investigate the 20 gallon tank which is home for the lizard’s crickets. He’s a heavy cat and the screen to the tank isn’t strong enough to support him. I’m doing my calculus homework in the basement and I hear a “thunk” sound. Then I hear a louder thunk followed by a crash. WTF? I got up and ran over to the sound and there is this white cat huddled in the corner of a 20 gallon tank. He’s sitting on the screen and the heat lamp has slid towards him. As he moved, the heat lamp came down and bumped him. I got there in time to move it out the way so he didn’t get burned.

I find out Monday evening he knocked one of Olessia’s glass makeup jars on the floor breaking pieces off the lid. What she told me was amusing about it was he’d push it an inch and look back at her. Apparently he wanted to be fed and I wasn’t up yet and he wanted her to do something about it. She ignored him. And he pushed her jar. She told him not to do it again. And he pushed her jar and to the floor it went. I told her you gotta keep an eye on that cat. He’s trouble!

So we’re finishing up dinner last night (Monday). I hear the sound of the cat toy on a stick and string being shuffled around. Murzik was in the kitchen trying to stay awake. Its priceless to see – she sits up all prim and proper and closes her eyes. Wait long enough and she wobbles as she snoozes! So it was Powder playing with the cat toy upstairs. “But he doesn’t play with it on his own,” I thought. Trouble! I ran upstairs and found the cat toy but no cat. I think it was the closest I’ve been to to investigating a crime scene. Where did the cat go? What did he do? Turns out he managed to get the attic door opened wide enough to let himself in (a box was put in front of the attic door to keep it closed). I open the door further and there he is, sitting there at the door looking at me like, “I was just sitting here!” I pulled him out.

After half an hour, we had picked him up and turned him upside down. Turns out his entire belly was gray from dust and dirt from the attic. I figure he was up in the attic for most of Monday and very possibly Sunday. There’s a lot of insulation in the attic and I prefer the cats not go in there for their health.

What makes this all funny is he either has this supper innocent look or he has this look on his face that says, “I know I’m pissing you off. What are you going to do about it?”
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