Kitty stories

Let's see, what new developments have happened since my last substantial update...

I took the babies in for their annual vet checkup last week. They're both perfectly healthy! Good weight, clean teeth, shiny coats, and reasonable temperament for being at their least-favorite place. They are remarkably quiet in the car, there is no howling or kitty-opera (as Sarah's family's cats always did, getting louder and higher in pitch with each scale they meowed!).

The one thing I asked the vet about was River's tendency to scarf down her food too fast and then toss it back up 10 minutes later (this was happening maybe once every other week, but that's a lot for an 8-pound cat). Normally I feed them side-by-side in the kitchen. Simon eats faster than she does, so he finishes his food and then butts in and steals the rest of hers. To counteract this, she was trying to gobble up her food too fast and then it wasn't staying down. The vet suggested feeding them separately so she doesn't feel the need to gobble. We started doing this, feeding them in separate parts of the kitchen. I sit and watch them with the spray bottle of water in my hand. The moment Simon finishes his food and starts to walk over to his sister, he gets squirted. Two days of that and he now looks at me and then walks away, doesn't even try to go for his sister. He learns! Of course, if I'm not sitting right there he knows he can get away with it, so for now I still need to babysit them while they eat. But it's been great, she hasn't thrown up since we started this new routine. Yay!

Other news items.... the cats have started being very sweetie and cuddly in the morning to wake me up for breakfast. I guess they've learned that I respond much more readily to rubbing, purring, and floomping next to me than I do to scratches, howling, and hair-pulling. They learn fast! Well, anything that results in them getting food or treats, that is.

Speaking of treats, they're getting more and more consistent with saying "mama" on command. I have some video that I need to splice together to show how they've gotten better over time. Of course, they won't do it when I have the camera rolling!

In general they're both continuously getting more lovey and lap-happy. Simon loves the glider rocking chair and is pretty consistently in my lap whenever I'm sitting in it. River loves the blanket on the back of Sarah's study chair and is also known to curl up ON Sarah when she's napping (like right now, for instance...). They always greet us at the door with brips that we can hear outside as we fumble with our keys, and they floomp on the floor for head scratches and ear rubs when we come inside. The cuteness continues!

We keep hearing about more wonderful cats from King Street Cats who have found their forever homes. Recently, several long-time resident cats who were there when we picked up Simon and River (almost 18 months ago!) finally got adopted, and we've been so excited to hear about it! There have also been more cute adoption updates from KSC "alumni" in their forever homes, which has inspired me to keep updating this blog for all the amazing volunteers who kept our babies safe and happy until we were able to come and find them. Thank you to everyone at KSC!!! We love you!!

October updates

It's been quite a while since my last round of updates! I just added a metric ton of pictures, the posts are all back-dated through September and begin on August 21. If you want to be sure you didn't miss anything, start back at the Bug-hunting and Late August cuteness posts. Almost everything since then (most of September and all of October) is new today.

Let's see, funny stories... River's newest way of waking me up for breakfast, after she's tried meowing and pawing at me, is to take a small chunk of my hair in her teeth and pull!!! I can only imagine how ridiculous it must look. We haven't been coordinated enough to get it on video yet, but I really want to see it!!  It doesn't hurt, it's just funny. Hungry kitties really will do anything!

Simon has taken to peeing on my clothes if I leave them all over the bedroom floor for too long (but only if I've also forgotten to scoop the cat box for a couple days). I suppose it's good motivation not to do either of those things!

The cats now really enjoy playing "catch" when they get in their crazy moods of racing around the house; I'll sit in the living room and toss a ball or toy down the hallway, and they'll scamper like mad to chase after it.  When they've rolled around and "killed" that toy, they'll wander back into the living room and I'll throw another one.  This can last quite a while, since between the two sets of grandparents and us hippie mommies, the cats have a LOT of toys!! I'm working on editing the video of them playing this game.

Speaking of toys, I was fishing around under the fridge yesterday to get a toy they had kicked under there, and I found the other earphone from when this happened in May. That explains why we only saw wires on the X-rays and not the earpiece itself! Whew. Apparently Simon is not as doofy as we thought he was. :-)

(TMI warning!) Also health-related, we did the 6-month follow-up test on Simon's fecal sample, and he has no signs of intestinal parasites or giardia! This is excellent news. They only found the antibodies last time, so it's good to have checked back again to confirm.

Thursday we will have had the babies 9 months, which is about the length of time they were at King Street Cats! Lots of milestones and happies. :-)

Simon ate WHAT?!

Is it motherhood when you simultaneously love your baby and want to strangle them?!

So two weeks ago Tuesday morning (May 22nd), my dad and sister were heading home so we were all getting ready to drive to the airport.  I noticed this white, string-looking thing on the floor of the hallway:

Upon closer inspection, I notice it's made of plastic and has silver and copper wires in it.  Wires?  This looks like part of an iPod earphone cord...

OH NO.

I go to the den, where the day before I had emptied my purse onto the floor. The pile of stuff includes my earphones, except now they look like this:

GAAAAAAAAAH!!

Simon ATE the left earphone, plus about six inches of the cord (some of which was the remnant I found in the hallway).  I couldn't believe it!! 

I called the vet, and they recommended getting an x-ray just to be sure nothing was blocking his gut (and to be sure it was really him!).  So we hauled both cats in, and $300 later we got confirmation that yes, Simon was the culprit, and the wires had already moved through his intestines pretty well.  The vet said to just watch him, don't feed him dinner that night, and "if you see wires sticking out of his butt, don't pull them."   !!!!!!

He didn't show any signs of feeling strange, both cats were playing and doing their usual thing.  For the next few days, I kept an extra-close eye on the litter box to be sure everything passed through (which it eventually did).

The other fun new thing I discovered, while inspecting the litter box, was that Simon has also been eating our hair elastics (and apparently passing them without issue).

GAH.  Nothing in this apartment is safe from the Jaws of Simon!

Change of birthday

When we got Simon and River, everyone at King Street Cats said that the cats were pretty little when they were brought in (March of 2011).  Some of the vet paperwork listed a birthdate of April 15, 2010, which didn't make any sense (why would the gentleman who found them keep them for almost a year before bringing them to the shelter?).  But one of the health summary sheets said January 25, 2011, which sounded much more feasible.

Yesterday we brought the babies in to the vet for their yearly exam and shots, as well as a check-up from the respiratory thing they had two weeks ago (hence the antibiotics).  They're both a healthy weight, and everything looks good.  River was very well-behaved, she resisted a little but allowed the vet to give her two shots while Sarah held her. 

Simon, on the other hand, was a fighter.  We got the first shot in his hind leg, but for the one in his front shoulder he was having none of it.  As Sarah tried to hold him still, he looked up at her with these big eyes that said, "I thought you would protect me from such things!!"  Then he proceeded to hiss and slash claws at the vet, so he had to be taken into the back room where a couple people could hold him.  He takes after Sarah in his attitude toward needles!

The vet estimated that they're probably a little over a year old now, which means that the January 25 birthday is probably the closest to right.  January 25 just happens to be the day we celebrated having them for 2 weeks, so I don't feel so guilty that they got cheated out of a birthday party.  So that is now their birthday!! Yearly celebrations will follow.  :-)

Two months!!

Today we've had the babies exactly two months!!  It's amazing to think back on how shy and cautious they were at the beginning... now they're meowing me awake every morning, dragging their toys everywhere, and greeting us with floomps and purrs whenever we come home.  :-)

Both cats are feeling and looking good since they started on the antibiotics.  We got some pill-pocket treats from Petco, and they have been a GODSEND.  Now the cats just eat up their pills with no trouble!  It sure beats trying to wrap them into cat-burritos and shove the pills down their throats...

It is still nearly impossible to get a decent picture with both of their faces showing.  But here are my most recent attempts:

Snoof?

Oh, were we supposed to look at the camera?

You're holding TREATS! Give us the TREEEEEATS!!!!!!

Oh, floomp it all...

Watching the cars go by...

Giving a cat a pill...

Last night they took their antibiotics no problem, we wrapped the pills in chicken treats.

Today, they're having none of it.  Seriously, this is so true!!!

River finally took hers after about five tries, once we soaked it in some Laxitone (they like the chicken flavor).  Simon is still un-pilled, even after we tried chicken treats, Laxitone, and wrapping him into a kitty-burrito with a beach towel (I'm still bleeding from that one).  I've never heard him hiss until today.

We're going to Petco and getting some pill-wrapping treats.

Vet visit

The vet said River most likely has a cold, so Sarah got antibiotics for both cats because Simon might catch the cold too.  Both kitties are at a good weight, they are otherwise healthy, and we'll bring them back to the vet in two weeks to get them up to date on all their shots.

Sarah said they were pretty much silent in the car: no pathetic meowing or, as some other cats we know have done, "kitty opera" that grows louder and higher with each passing mile.  They were calm and good the whole time.  And now they're home and lounging around as though nothing happened. 

I think our kids are pretty well-adjusted.  :-)

Kitty with a cold...

River has been snoofing a bit since Tuesday, sneezing (which sounds like "ka-snerch!") and getting little snot bubbles from her nose.  Sarah was home with them all day and told me that River was lower-energy than usual.  Yesterday River's right eye started tearing a little, so Sarah got an appointment with the vet for tomorrow afternoon. 

Based on internet research, it's probably either a cold or an upper respiratory infection (in which case Simon will probably catch it too).  I can't go to the vet with them because I have my seminar tomorrow, so Sarah gets to wrestle the babies into their carriers for their first post-adoption vet visit by herself.

I'm sure they will both be okay, but it's hard as the kitty-mommy to see River with her right eye partially shut and hear her snoofing every so often... poor baby.  Simon has sneezed a couple times, but nothing more yet.   Maybe River just snoofed something from the carpet up her nose and it will be an easy fix.  Until then... Sarah is fretting and pacing the floor like a nervous mother.