Friday, April 27, 2018

poor Pierre

Pierre had a little adventure recently.

He had three or four days of horking out the front and diarrhea dripping out of his backside. He made quite the mess and not being able to get near him made it quite the challenge. Things seemed to escalate to him crying out when trying to poop and finding blood in his stool. We started talking about maybe taking him to emergency vet to get checked over to make sure he didn't have some sort of blockage. But, how would he catch him? Every time I've gotten him in the past, it involved trapping him on the back porch.



So, when he crawled into a soft covered cat bed thing, I grabbed the large carrier from the closet. Usually at the sound of a human getting near he would disappear and hide but in this case he was obviously not feeling well because he didn't move. So, I slowly picked up his bed with him in it and placed the entire thing in the carrier and again he didn't move. His lack of putting up a fight concerned me.

The vet had to sedate him to be able to examine him. They did some x-rays and we learned he didn't have a blockage, so that was good, instead he had some sort of GI bug. The vet wanted us to give him oral metronidazole for treatment - how do you pill a semi-feral cat?! That drug is very bitter, so hiding it in food doesn't work the well.


When I got him home, I locked him in the wire crate to have better chance of medicating him and to contain the messy poop situation. We were able to sneak some of the med into some of his food and so he got a few doses of it and it didn't take long for his GI tract to settle. Then his non-stop cries from being locked away from his kitty friends became too much and he regained his freedom. When he got free the first cat he came across was Nahum, so he rubbed all up against him like he does Oliver - Nahum wasn't quite sure what to do, but he allowed it. I hope Pierre and Nahum become friends, they are both very playful and silly and could really enjoy one another.

So far he's still doing good - so paws crossed the bug has passed and peace has returned.

Thursday, April 26, 2018

wonder and splendor

Some are drawn to travel great distances to witness the wonder and splendor of the world.


I'm more content to lie in bed and take in the world of wonder and splendor 
that parks on my chest and purrs, purrs, purrs...


I could gaze upon this beauty for a lifetime and never get bored.

Friday, April 13, 2018

season of settling

Outside winter is becoming spring. The snow is nearly all melted away. Inside, we are still settling into the new space around us.

Pierre, like a good feral cat, continues to attempt to disappear when he sees a human noticing that he exists. We've spotted him hanging out in the window and enjoying various parts of the cat tree!! Don't tell him that we saw him in those places though.


Rose is coming out more and doing her Rose thing. Because she's Rose, she still steers clear of the evil humans, but otherwise enjoys her surroundings. Rose and Pierre spend most of the time when the humans are active, sleeping behind the couch. Hopefully they will become good friends.

photo courtesy of Laura
It just dawned on my this evening as I watched Rose roll around on the floor that she is our only cat right now with white furs. Willow had beautiful whites. I'm still getting my heart ready to write the Willow tribute post, I'm getting closer to being able to do that. I still think about her all the time and still can't believe she's not with us. It kind of feels like we somehow forgot her back in Washington. I miss her so much. 


The window overlooking the street is a popular perch for bird watching.


Oliver and Theo are working on their friendship.


Oliver's smell is quite different now that he's an inside only cat. He used to have a distinctive wood smoke smell but now that's no more. We will always wonder how he got that delicious odor! Everyday, I still take huge delight seeing Oliver enjoy his inside kitty status. I think back to how I used to worry about him so much, those summer nights when we refused to be locked safely on the back porch, I would awake in the night to the sound of him fighting other cats - oh the stress and worry. I spent a tremendous amount of energy worrying about him, so wanting him to be safe. Now, I hope to repurpose all that energy that was once spent worrying about Oliver and focus it on solving world hunger!